Scourge Shrouded in Gold III (Touhou Fan Fiction)
by TheOVJM
Summary: Sanae is captured and is held hostage by Wolf. It all gets personal now when Wolf has dared to touch Sakuya's and Marisa's friend. And so the final race for the treasure and for their life begins. This is the final episode of my Scourge Shrouded in Gold trilogy and it's way longer than I had anticipated. If you haven't read the first two parts, please do before reading this one.


**Scourge Shrouded in Gold III**

"You do understand that your life is almost literally on a knife's edge, don't you?" Wolf asked with really unamused look on his face while looking at Sanae who was looking away from Wolf while being tied to a chair. Few soldiers were standing around them. Wolf then sighed and took out a small hexagonal box from his pocket and showed it to Sanae.

"This item was found from among the belongings of one of your friends. What is it and what is its purpose?" Wolf asked with serious and unamused look on his face. Sanae just glanced at the Hakkero in Wolf's hands and then just looked away without saying even a word.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" Wolf shouted and grabbed Sanae from her jaw and turned her head towards him.

"Keep in mind that if it turns out that you don't have any knowledge regarding this object or the treasure, you'll become useless to me, and I tend to get rid of things that are useless to me. Don't forget about that," Wolf hissed between his teeth and let go of Sanae. Sanae just glared at Wolf as he walked out from the container that Sanae was being held in. Wolf and his army had arrived to the coast of Canada about one day ago and they were currently chasing the trails of Eric the Red in the hopes of finding the Sampo that Eric had transported with him from Europe. They had arrived to the shores of Labrador which was one of the places Eric had reached during his expeditions. Wolf and his men were currently camped on the shores of the wilderness of Labrador. Because their trail had gone cold after reaching the shores of Canada, Wolf had sent wef of his men to scout out what they could find about Eric and his visits to this region. He very well knew that Eric was more famous about his expeditions to Greenland, but knowing the way how that kind of chief would operate, it was more likely that eric would try to hide the treasure of that value from his people and take it further. Or at least that's what Sanae had overheard him speaking to few of his men after they had questioned why they were heading to Canada instead of Greenland.

"Like trying to find a needle from a haystack," Sanae thought to herself while thinking about this. She very well knew that there were hundreds and hundreds kilometers of shore that they would need to look trhough if they wanted to follow Eric's trail.

"If I were him, I would give up now. There isn't any kind of mention in history books about Eric hiding a treasure to Canada. What makes him think that he can find it assuming that it even is here?" Sanae wondered to herself in the dark container while two soldiers were watching her every move.

About one hundred kilometers from the shores of Canada there was a cargo ship headed towards Wolf's location with the aim of bringing him more supplies, but little did he know that the cargo ship was carrying something else too. In the hold of the ship Sakuya and Marisa were waiting for the ship to arrive to its destination and planning their next move. Marisa was already almost bored to death. She was just throwing the magazine of her gun to the air and catching it. And when she got bored to that she just started emptying it and filling it again and again.

"Your suffering is almost over Marisa. We are arriving in a hour or two," Sakuya said after looking at Sanae's phone. She had kept a track of the ships movement with that phone. But suddenly they heard how the engine of that cargo ship was shut down.

"Marisa, you heard that?" Sakuya asked after the sound of the engine stopped.

"Yup," Marisa responded while looking around herself. Sakuya then signed Marisa to get up so they could scout things out. But they really didn't even need to get up, before they saw what was happening. The cover of the hold opened and the rays of sun blinded them for a moment. After their eyes got used to that light they saw how the ship was being unloaded. The crane was starting to lift the containers out one by one.

"What is happening?" Marisa asked in confusion to which Sakuya just replied, "Wait just a second. I will go and see what is going on." Sakuya then just snapped her fingers and desappeared from in front of Marisa's eyes. Sakuya had stopped time to safely see what was going on on the deck. She climbed out from the hold by using the containers and the crane that was just about to lift one of the containers out from the hold. She climbed out by using the wires of that crane and once she was out she jumped on to the deck and started studying the situation. She ran to the side of the ship and looked what was happening outside of it. In the distance she saw the land and mountains reaching up to the sky. She then happened to look down and saw many smaller ships to which the containers were loaded in. Sakuya then happened to take out Sanae's phone where there was a frozen image of the map that Sakuya had used while they were waiting to ship to arrive to its destination. She then looked at it more carefully and finally understood what was going on.

"Oh, well that explains," Sakuya muttered and put the phone back to her pocket and started returning back to Marisa. She quickly climbed back into the hold and once she was where she had left, she snapped her fingers again.

"W-whoa. It really took you just a second," Marisa said with a bit surprised tone and look on her face. No matter how well she knew that Sakuya was able to manipulate time she never got used to how she just disappeared and appeared all of a sudden.

"Well what's going on?" Marisa continued and tilted her head.

"The containers are being loaded into smaller ships for this one is way too big. I totally forgot that Hebron does not have any docks that would be big enough for this ship. And since these conatiners are unloaded here, I assume that these smaller ships will take us really close to Wolf, so we may want to get back into that crate that we used to get into this ship," Sakuya said and opened the door of the crate against which Marisa was leaning. Marisa then just followed her and closed the door behind her. They then just sat in the middle of the pile of weapons, ammo crates and rations while waiting for the crate to be unloaded to one of those ships. It took a few minutes, but eventually they heard a clang and after that felt how the crate rose from the bottom of the hold.

"Okay Marisa. These containers will most likely be transported to Wolf from the shore via trucks or something like that. We really cannot hide in this crate to reach him for we would be noticed eventually. So once these containers have been unloaded to the shore we have to get out and trace Wolf down via other means," Sakuya whispered so that they wouldn't be heard from the outside, even if the sounds of the crane were covering most of the other sounds. They felt the movements of the container as it hanged from the wires of the crane. Finally they felt how the container was loaded on to one of those smaller ships and heard the engines of that ship starting.

"So how are we going to slip out from here?" Marisa whispered with unsure tone as they waited for the ship to transport its cargo to the shore.

"Just wait calmly. I will think of something," Sakuya responded with thoughtful look on her face.

"So you don't have a plan yet? Great," Marisa bridled a bit, but she was interrupted by Sakuya who shushed with angry look on her face. They just silently waited and listened the monotinic sound of the engines. Sakuya then just looked through the crates once more just to make sure that they had taken all the necessary equipment from them. She made sure that their weapons were loaded and then sat beside Marisa to wait. About hour later they heard how the engines stopped. Sakuya woke up to this and made sure that Marisa was ready. They heard some noises from the outside. Sakuya thought that it was the machinery which the mercenaries would use to unload the containers. They heard how the containers were unloaded one after another and how every now and then a truck could be heard driving away.

"So I was right. They use trucks to move these thing. Well that makes things easier for us," Sakuya thought to herself half aloud. Marisa just looked at Sakuya and seemed like she was going to ask something, but before she could Sakuya covered her mouth with her hand to keep Marisa quiet. Immediately after that they felt how the container in which they were was being moved. They waited and listened as the container was moved from the ship to one of those trucks that could be heard from the outside. They still waited for a moment in complete silence. After a while they heard how the engines of that truck started and they began moving. Sakuya then just sigehd for relief.

"Uhmmm, didn't you say that we have to get out of this container once we get ashore?" Marisa asked with a bit confused tone.

"Change of plans. We will hijack this truck," Sakuya said and grinned a little. She then stood up and headed towards the doors of that container.

"Uh, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Marisa continued with unsure look on her face as she watched how Sakuya started to open the door.

"Since you are a bit... well... clumsy and wont be able to follow me, just stay here and wait," Sakuya said and opened the door. Sakuya then looked through the door and made sure that there weren't any trucks following them in their immediate vicinity. Once she was sure that the next truck was far enough she jumped and pulled herself on top of the conatiner. Marisa just looked at Sakuya and once she had lost visual to her she walked to the open door just to see how fast they were moving.

"Yeah, yeah, just climb on top of this thing while we are moving over 70 kilometers per hour in mountainous environment," Marisa said with uneasy look on her face as she backed away from the door. Just a moment after she had done that she felt how the truck wobbled a bit and then stabilized again.

"W-whoah... What was that?" Marisa thought to herself as she sat down carefully. She then saw throuhg the open back door how the truck turned to some smaller road from the intersection. She just waited for a moment. The truck drove along the road about half a kilometer until it stopped to the side of that small road. Marisa waited for a moment, but when nothing happened she walked to the door and peeked outside. It was quiet. The truck was parked to the side of the road and when she looked around herself on the outside on her right there were mountains and on her left she saw the sea. She then walked to the side of the truck to see what Sakuya had done. Once she got closer to the cabin of the truck the door opened and a bloody corpse of one of those mercenaries fell out. Sakuya then soon stepped out after the corpse and swiped some blood from her sleeves and put one of her knives back to its holster.

"Now then... where were we?" Sakuya said as she closed the truck's door and sighed. Sakuya then took out the Sanae's phone and typed something.

"What are you doing?" Marisa asked from Sakuya as she watched how she put Sanae's phone back into her pocket.

"That poor sod had the exact coordinates of Wolf's camp. I marked them down. It is just few kilometers from here, but before we leave, let me dispose of our little friend here," Sakuya said and opened the truck's door again. She then took the corpse from the ground and tossed it into the truck. She then climbed in and started the truck again. She then moved the truck so that its front was heading downhill towards the sea. She then lifted the handbrake and jumped out. She and Marisa just watched how the truck slowly rolled down towards the sea and finally fell over the cliff.

"Will not be the last of them...," Sakuya bridled and turned around.

"Uhhh, a truck or soldier?" Marisa asked and chuckled a bit nervously.

"Both," Sakuya responded and signed Marisa to follow her. Marisa just tilted her head and ran after Sakuya. After Marisa caught up with Sakuya she slowed down and started walking beside her.

"Hey, you know I've been wondering. If it wasn't necessary to save Sanae, would you still do it? I mean would care what could happen to us?" Marisa asked with serious look on her face while looking at the rocky lanscape around them.

"I am sure you would convince me to save her no matter what," Sakuya responded and dodged the question.

"No I'm serious here. If it was totally up to you to decide wether to do it or not, would you?" Marisa continued with strict tone.

"Sigh* There are two types of people in this world, heroes and cowards. Do I even need to say which I am if I am still alive?" Sakuya said without even looking at Marisa.

"That's what I was afraid you would answer. Are we actually just nobodies to you?" Marisa asked with a bit sad look on her face while looking down, but she didn't hear the answer because as soon as she finished her sentence Sakuya slapped her to her face.

"Where is the thieving, ever so energetic and optimistic Kirisame I know!? If you're worried about dying here, then you might as well give up now with that attitude! If you do not like the way I think then do not think about it. For now let's just find Wolf and save Sanae, so we can return home," Sakuya bridled while looking at Marisa who was holding her cheek wit shocked and surprised look on her face. Sakuya then just sighed and continued walking while signing Marisa to follow. Marisa didn't expect that kind of outburst from Sakuya so it took her a moment to gather herself and sprint after her. She just looked at Sakuya for a second, but clearly saw from her face that she wasn't looking for conversation. She just gazed down and walked silently beside Sakuya.

They kept walking for few dozen minutes along the road that was cut to the mountain's side. Marisa knew that they had to be already close to the Wolf's camp for they had already walked for quite while. She saw the tire tracks of those trucks that had transported the supplies to Wolf and his men, but still saw no trace of the camp. Marisa was starting to doubt that Sakuya truly had the right coordinates, but when Sakuya signed her to stop and to get down her senses sharpened. She did what Sakuya signed her to do, followed her to the side of the road and layed down to the dirt. Marisa looked at Sakuya and asked, "What's going on?" Sakuya just pointed silently to the hillside about two hundred meters away from them.

"Two guys, look. Wolf's men," Sakuya whispered and pointed at them until Marisa signed that she too saw them. They looked at them for a moment and it seemed like they weren't walking towards them, so they were safe if they didn't to do anything stupid.

"Should we take'em out?" Marisa asked carefully.

"Na-aah, let's shadow them. They might lead us straight to their camp," Sakuya responded and looked at Marisa. Marisa then just nodded as they stood up carefully and moved to a better hiding spot while maintaining their visual contact to the soldiers. They kept their distance, so they wouldn't be heard. But one thing they heard, when the two soldiers stopped for a moment because one of them had to take a piss, was the other soldier mentioining their mission.

"You think that what we found is what the boss is looking for?" The other soldier asked from his partner.

"Don't know, but it is the only major ancient native american settlement around the area," The other replied casually. Sakuya and Marisa were hiding behind a big rock just thirty meters away from the soldiers, so they were barely able to hear their conversation.

"Does Wolf even know what he's looking for? The labrador coastline is pretty damn long," The other pridled.

"Don't let boss catch you saying that," The other replied just before they continued walking. Sakuya just quickly glanced at Marisa and then signed her to follow her as they once again started following the soldiers. They tailed them for a good five minutes. Finally they saw how the soldiers started walking down a hill so they lost their sight of them. Sakuya quickly followed them to see where they were headed and as soon as she reached the slope of the hill she saw the Wolf's camp just below them. Marisa quickly followed Sakuya's lead and layed down beside her.

"Would you look at that... Now where is Sanae and how do we get her out?" Sakuya muttered and took out her binoculars to see the structure of the camp better.

"Couldn't you just stop time, go there and grab Sanae without anyone noticing?" Marisa asked while looking down at the camp.

"Do not be ridiculous. It requires a great amount of effort on my part to pull that off in the outside world and even if I were to do it I could not move Sanae even a single inch. That would be just wasting my time and power. And besides if she is in a locked room or cell somewhere in that camp, I cannot get to her, because I cannot get any doors open while the time is stopped," Sakuya whispered with annoyed tone.

"Well, I guess we have to do this the hard way?" Marisa asked and reached for the gun she had in her pocket.

"No, let's not go over our heads. Even with our bulletproof vests, we would be ripped into pieces if we were to attack against them. The area is just too open. Let's just scout things out, see what do we got," Sakuya responded and kept looking through the binoculars. After a few seconds she opened her mouth again, "There is Wolf... He is meeting with the soldiers... that son of a bitch." Marisa was laying beside Sakuya looking bored. She had thought Sakuya to go all out at the camp once they would reach it, but it turned out to be more of a waiting game.

"They went into a tent, so I cannot see them. So Wolf is truly trying to find Sampo from here. But how can he be so sure that he can pick up where Eric left off? It does not add up," Sakuya mumbled while looking troubled.

"Aren't you forgetting that we are supposed to get Sanae and my Hakkero back? Wolf can chace that thing to the ends of the world all I care," Marisa bridled and gazed down to the camp.

"And you do understand that we cannot lay here forewer, don't you?" Marisa asked with impatient tone and look on her face. The fact that they had to just sit and wait there made her feel really uneasy.

"Better than you d-wait, Wolf is stepping out of that tent. Now let's see what he is up to," Sakuya muttered while following Wolf's every move with her eyes.

"He is clearly yelling something, though I cannot figure out what... Wait, he is heading for one of the vehicles... few soldiers are following him. I think they are leaving for that place the soldiers mentioned," Sakuya described what Wolf was doing while getting up.

"What are you up to?" Marisa then asked.

"We cannot get Sanae out while they are staying here, so we might as well try to figure out what is Wolf's plan so we might get a lead on him," Sakuya explained her idea.

"So the race for the treasure is back on?" Marisa asked with a bit unbelieving look on her face.

"For now, but once we manage to save Sanae and your Hakkero we head straight back to Gensokyo," Sakuya said and dag out Sanae's phone and looked at it for a moment.

"Whaddya looking at?" Marisa then asked. She was confused when Sakuya didn't charge after Wolf immediately.

"We are on foot, so might as well try to plan how we are going to chace them. According to maps the road they are driving will reach a village few kilometers from here. The road is kinda complex, so if we cut through the hills we might stay on them," Sakuya said and looked at Marisa with determined look on her face.

"Okay, let's not waste anymore time. We find out where he's headed next, get a lead on him and ambush him when the time is right," Marisa said and nodded to Sakuya.

"Aaah, you finally seem to understand my plans without me explaining them to you over dozen times," Sakuya said and grinned sarcastically just before she turned around and started walking at fast pace towards the hills. Marisa then just sighed, shook her head and ran after Sakuya. She had thought that she had gotten used to Sakuya's jibing, but she just came up with new 'insults' all the time. This annoyed Marisa, but she knew that Sakuya didn't mean anything with them. Or at least that's how she had understood it.

They kept walking rapidly through the rough landscape to get to that village before Wolf or at least not after Wolf would have already left. Their walk took them about fifteen minutes minutes before they saw the village appearing behind one of the many hills of that region. Once they saw it Sakuya immediately took out her binoculars to see if she could see Wolf's convoy.

"I do not see any traces of him yet. Looks like we are in time," Sakuya muttered while looking through the binoculars.

"Just barely. Look there," Marisa said and pointed to the direction of the road where they saw Wolf and his men driving towards the village. They watched how the convoy drove to the village and stopped to a side of a road.

"Okay, they stopped. Let's head down and try to figure out what they are doing here," Sakuya said to nodding Marisa. They started descending down the hill towards the the village. They tried to make it so that they wouldn't be seen by too many locals and especially not by the Wolf's men or by Wolf himself. The village wasn't too big consisting only handful of houses and other buildings so it was easy to not lose Wolf while he and his men walked into the town. Sakuya and Marisa were watched all the time by the locals because it was rare to see any tourists there. Sakuya didn't like this because it made hard for them to tail Wolf and not be caught while doing so. Finally they saw how Wolf entered one of the buildings. Sakuya immediately signed Marisa to stop when she saw Wolf entering it. The house was clearly larger than the other buildings of the village.

"Okay, one person attracts much less attention than two. Stay here and... well... keep the eyes of the locals busy while I try to figure out what Wolf is up to," Sakuya said while looking at the two-storied building.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Marisa then asked with confused look on her face while tilting her head.

"You are a sight on yourself in this town, so you can just walk around, BUT stay away from that building. Wolf does not know that we are alive and we may want to keep it that way for now," Sakuya said and looked at the house after explaining her plan to Marisa. Marisa then just nodded to indicate that she understood before they separated to their own directions. Sakuya then slipped to the street and tried to look as casual as she could. She walked a bit away from the bigger building, then crossed the road to the side where the building was and sidled between two other buldings. It seemed that the soldiers had not seen her. Then without waiting for any longer she took a hold of a chute that was on the side of the building and climbed on top of it. She was now on the rooftops and had a perfect bird's eye wiev of the village. There weren't many people around and the village was quite small in size, maybe 500 meters from one end to the other at the most. She was just couple buldings away from the one in which Wolf was. Sakuya then carefully made sure that she would not be seen if she were to jump from one roof to another. Once she was sure that none of the locals were interested of what was happening on the roofs Sakuya backed away a little and ran towards the next building. She could easily make it to the other roof. It seemed that no one had any clue what she was up to, so now when she had gotten into good momentum she kept going and jumped to the next building. The building she was aiming at was just one leap further, but the distance she had to make was far more greater than the others between the smaller buildings. Sakuya didn't let this distract her and so she just picked up her pace and took the jump. She managed to get hold of the edge of the roof with her other foot and her arms. She quickly pulled herself up and immediately laid down. She couldn't be sure if anyone had seen her, but she figured it would be wise to try and stay low from now on. She then proceeded to crawl on that flat roof towards something that looked like a skylight. It was more of a glass dome actually, but she figured that it most likely was her best chance to see what was going on inside.

"This better be the right window," Sakuya thought and took a careful peek through the window. She saw an office and few people sitting in there talking to each other. By their looks Sakuya quickly realized that one of them was Wolf and most of the rest were his men. There was only one person she didn't recognize so Sakuya figured that whoever he was, Wolf had come to meet him. It seemed like they were having a conversation with each other, but Sakuya couldn't hear what they were saying. She then quickly took one of her knives out and inspected the glass dome through which she was looking. She saw pretty quickly tha the glass panels were removable, so she got to it immediately. There were four screws holding each panel on its place. It didn't take too long for Sakuya to remove the screws with her knife and move the glass panel out of her way as carefully as she could. She then put the panel down to the roof and started listening.

"Yes there truly is an ancient native american settlement nearby, but if I may ask, what does a business man like yourself gotta do with ancient dusty ruins?" The unknown man asked from Wolf who was sitting in front of that man's desk.

"Well the reason is quite simple. I'm pretty sure that you know that my family has gained lots of popularity with our archaeological finds, no?" Wolf asked from the man with whom he was talking with.

"Yes, I'm certainly aware of that," The man replied and waited as Wolf continued his explanation.

"Well, my father used to be very interested in the ancient native americans. He had mapped every single native american settlement here in Labrador, or at least that's how he had thought. After he had retired a word of a new settlement found near this village reached me. And now to make my dad's work complete I'd really like to investigate that settlement," Wolf explained layed down an actual map of all the ancient native american settlements of Labrador.

"Holy shit. He is not kidding. His father truly did make almost perfect map... wait, so that is why he was so sure that the settlement here is the one that holds the secrets of Sampo. You lucky bastard," Sakuya muttered silently to herself.

"But that's only one of my goals. My real goal is to find out if that settlement had anything to do with the infamous Erik the Red," Wolf finished his explanation and looked at the man behind his desk.

"I see, I see. You are very well informed man when it comes to historical research, Alexander Wolf. I would be glad to help you in your expedition, but I'm afraid that you're too late," The man replied and stood up from his chair and walked to the back wall that had a map of the nearby area on it.

"The settlement is right here, but the only problem is that it has already been... well raided is a pretty strong word to describe it, but I assume it is the best one," The man said and pointed at a certain spot on the map.

"What do you mean raided?" Wolf asked and laughed a bit sarcastically.

"Well basically after the settlement was found, a billionare from United States bought the whole thing before any research could be done to it. His offer was so generous that we would have been crazy to refuse it. The man who bought it is Alonso De Guzman. His family came to US from Spain," The man explained walked back to his desk and sat on to his chair.

"But you had at least researched your history well. Guzman truly did find items and relics that highly indicated that the settlement had truly been visited by Erik the Red, but the word 'visit' may be a bit of a understatement," The man said, leaned closer to Wolf and looked straight into his eyes.

"Go on, now you caught my interest," Wolf said and grinned a little.

"Yes, yes, it appeared that Erik had his own settlement built together with the native americans'. Many foundations found at the digsite were nordic style and together with them there were many viking tools and relics," The man explained with enthused look on his face, but then stopped quickly and just looked at the map behind them.

"But Guzman kept everything found from the digsite, is that it?" Wolf asked while looking at the man.

"Sadly yes. I don't know if those items and relics were enough to pay him back the amount of money that he payed to us for the rights to that settlement, but business is business. If I'm not mistaken he's currently advertising an auction aimed for the richest. He is selling the items that he found from the digsite. If you're after those items then you could try from his mansion in Arizona, Phoenix where the auction is held," The man said and nodded to Wolf.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to pay him a visit," Wolf replied, nodded to the man, marked the location of the digsite to his father's map and said his farewell to the man before exiting the building. Sakuya had just layed on the roof for the whole converstaion just quietly listening to those two. She then stood up slowly and put the galss panel back to its place.

"Guzman, eh? Phoenix, Arizona... it is going to be a lengthy trip," Sakuya thought to herself while walking closer to the edge of the roof, so she could descend to the back of the building. Sakuya climbed down quickly and waited until Wolf and his men had left before she dared to come out from the alley. Once she heard a loud engine strating noise and saw few trucks driving by she stepped back to the streets. She then walked around for a bit to see if she could find Marisa, but just as she had told her, Marisa had gotten away from the building Wolf had been in.

"Hope you did not get yourself into trouble," Sakuya thought to herself and sighed a bit. She then started to walk along the road and when she encountered the first person she asked from him, "Have you seen a Japanese girl that has blonde hair and is wearing a ridiculous red checked shirt?"

"Yes, I have. We have so few tourists in this town that I'm sure that everyone has. I saw her wandering in that direction," The man replied and pointed to the opposite direction of that big building.

"Thanks," Sakuya replied nodded and started walking to the direction she had been pointed toward. The man just nodded and kept walking. It didn't take long until Sakuya found Marisa sitting on a bench on a side of the street.

"You're finally back! So did you find out anything?" Marisa asked with enthused look on her face once she saw that Sakuya had returned.

"We have a long road ahead of us. We have to get to Phoenix before Wolf does," Sakuya said not expecting that Marisa would know what she was talking about.

"Phoenix? What does Mokou have to do with this?" Marisa asked with a bit sarcastic and confused look on her face.

"Figured you would not know what I am talking about. I meant the city Phoenix. Wolf is after some Erik the Red's artefacts that are being sold in that city. We need to get there and tackle him there," Sakuya explained while looking around herself.

"W-what about Sanae then? Can we assume that she will be safe?" Marisa asked with worried look on her face.

"No, we cannot. We just have to hope for the best, besides I need you in shape once we get to the Phoenix. I have come up with a plan and I need your thieving skills in that," Sakuya said and checked Sanae's phone.

"Alright, now you're talking! So what's the plan then?" Marisa asked with a bit lightened up look on her face.

"No not here. We do not need to stress ourselves by thinking about that. For now we need a vehicle with which we can get to Phoenix," Sakuya said and looked around herself in hopes of finding a buss or a taxi, but she soon realized that the village was too small to have those kinds of things. She then sighed and tried to think of a solution.

"So... was it a good idea to let that truck fall to the ocean back then?" Marisa asked with mischevious grin on her face.

"I had not thought this far ahead," Sakuya responded with annoyed tone and look on her face while looking around herself.

"Well fear not, 'cause I gotcha covered," Marisa said and pulled out a pair of keys from her pocket with triumphant look on her face.

"I borrowed these from one of the car thingies when Wolf and his men were inside that building. They were stupid enough to leave the doors open," Marisa said and laughed a bit.

"Okay, i have to admit that that was pretty well thought from you," Sakuya said with impressed look on her face after Marisa had given the keys to her. They then walked back to the main street to the side of which the vehicles had been parked when the soldiers had been in that building. Marisa then pointed to the side of the street where there stood one army green clolored jeep. Sakuya looked at the car for a moment and clapped a few times.

"It seems that I have underestimated you a second time now," Sakuya said and laughed a bit. Marisa just smirked as they crossed the street and walked up to the car. Sakuya was just about to open the door of that jeep, but suddenly she turned around and looked at Marisa with her arms crossed over her chest.

"By the way, why did you steal the keys in the first place?" Sakuya asked and grinned a little.

"Well you said that we couldn't save Sanae back at the camp and that we would need to get a drop on Wolf in some better place. And since they have these 'cars' as I've heard they're named, I thought we may need one to keep up with him," Marisa explained with proud look on her face.

"I have to give you credit for this, so here I go: well done, but remember, Wolf will be more careful from now on. He may not expect that we were the ones who stole one of his vehicles, but we may want to stay on our toes," Sakuya said and looked into Marisa's eyes. Marisa just nodded with serious look on her face and sat to the passenger's seat as Sakuya sat behind the wheel.

"It truly has been a while since I have sat behind a wheel of one of these. Now then, how did these things work again?" Sakuya muttered while looking at the steering wheel in front of her.

"If you dare to tell me that you don't know how to drive this thing...," Marisa started, but Sakuya quickly interrupted her bys responding, "I was just joking. Once you learn how to drive a car you cannot forget it. It is like driving a bike,"

"What's a bike?" Marisa asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Tch, just forget it." Sakuya responded, swiped the air with her hand and started the engine. She then stepped on the gas and they drove out of the town their destination being Phoenix and the action where they had to tackle Wolf and hopefully save Sanae.

While Marisa and Sakuya were on their way to rescue Sanae the atmosphere back at Gensokyo wasn't upbeat. After Yukari had revealed that the treasure that Marisa had originally been after had been sealed away for a serious reason, though she didn't tell the reason, Reimu had started to panic. Not knowing if she had sent Sakuya and Sanae to their deaths she had started to seek a way to get them back. She had told to Remilia and Patchouli about what Yukari had told her. Remilia had been so furious about it that she had tried to attack Reimu, but Patchouli had calmed her down by reminding her that She was the one who gave the approval for Sakuya's leaving. She had then planned to go out and beat Yukari up, but Patchouli had syopped her again. After that Reimu had visited the Moriya shrine and told what had happened. They were avare that Sanae had left, but they didn't have any idea how dangerous the trip was. They said that they understood the gravity of the situation, but couldn't offer any help in bringing them back. After that Reimu had returned to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and had started to rummage through Patchouli's library to find a way to bring her friends back, for only way she knew was to use the amulet she had given to Sakuya, but that amulet would work only if used at the outside world counterpart of the Hakurei shrine. That's why she needed to find another way.

"Patchouli can't you really bring them back by any chance? I'm willing to do anything for that," Reimu insisted even after Patchouli had declined.

"How many times I have to tell you that I cannot do that? You don't need to try to bribe me to do that, because I can't. To be truthful I would have done it immediately if I was able to," Patchouli responded with annoyed look on her face. They had already gone through several bookcases worth of books to find a way to bring their friends back without finding a solution.

"If you can't then who can? There has to be someone behind the transportation of the mansion. Something like a whole mansion cannot break trhough the Hakurei barrier without outside help," Reimu said with desperate tone and look on her face.

"That's true, but I'm not the one behind it. Nor do I know who is. Only thing I know is that Remilia planned the whole thing, but even when I asked about it from her, she refused to tell me the details and told that she was the one planning out the transportation, but not one actually executing the plan. She has never told anything else," Patchouli explained and sighed.

"Then why doesn't she help us?" Reimu insisted.

"Because as I said she isn't the one who transported the mansion through the barrier. She told me before we arrived that it would be a one way trip," Patchouli responded with strict look on her face. At first Reimu looked like she was still gonna ask something, but she just closed her mouth and shook her head.

"Speaking of which, Remilia must be furious now when the mansion isn't tended properly while Sakuya is away," Reimu said while getting back at the book she was reading before she tried to get Patchouli to trasport their frinds back for the fifth time.

"Why would you think it would be so? You know that Meiling used to be our head maid before Remilia ordered Sakuya to take her place. She may not look like it, but Meiling is more than capable to keep the mansion up and running with the help of the fairy maids. It was after Remilia's order when Meiling was made to be out gate guard, but now when she is tending the mansion we just had to put a group of fairies to the gate," Patchouli responded without even lifting her gaze from the book.

"Do you really trust that those fairies will keep the intruders away?" Reimu asked from Patchouli with a bit worried tone.

"At least they don't sleep as often as Meiling when she was the gate guard," Patchouli responded with annoyed tone.

"Desperate times calls for desperate actions?" Reimu asked and chuckled a bit playfully, but Patchouli saw easily that Reimu wasn't too relaxed about all of this.

"Speaking of which, have tried to get Nitori to help you?" Patchouli asked from Reimu who didn't look so cheery.

"What good would come out of that?" Reimu asked with depressed look on her face.

"Not that you could understand, but I think that I just got an idea. Before they left Sanae had this device she called 'a phone'. You don't know or even need to know how it functioins, but only thing you need to know is that they are used for communication in the outside world. That is if I remember it correctly. Nitori's teleporter is able to acces the outside world, so with small adjustments we could be able to contact them," Patchouli explained her idea.

"Then we have no time to waste! Let's find that kappa and get her to help us," Reimu shouted and ran immediately out of the library. Patchouli nodded although Reimu didn't even look at her and followed her shortly after. Reimu almost tackled Meiling on her way to the lobby. Meiling was going to bring them some tea, but after Reimu charged past her she figured that they didn't need it. Patchouli passed by Meiling soon after this and explained to her that she and Reimu were going to see Nitori. Meiling wished them luck in their attempt to get more help before Patchouli flew after Reimu.

Reimu was still angry at Nitori and for a fair reason. In the end Nitori was the one who made this mess possible, but now when Nitori's help could be vital for them Reimu really didn't have any other choice than to ask help from her. She was flying as fast as she could towards the Kappa valley to see Nitori. She knew that she would need to wait for Patchouli to catch up with her to explain why they needed Nitori's help, but she still wasn't going to wait around for that librarian. The flight up the mountain and to the Kappa village didn't take too long, because the Scarlet Devil Mansion wasn't too far away from the Youkai Mountain. Once Reimu arrived to the village she immediately flew past the other buildings to reach the one at the far back of the village which was Nitori's laboratory. Reimu landed to the walkway leading to Nitori's lab, ran up to the door and blasted it to pieces. She rushed in just to find Nitori looking at the destruction before her that Reimu had caused.

"Come oooon! That was the second door during this week already. I'll start charging you if you break my devices after this," Nitori yelled with frustrated tone and while pulling her hair with annoyed look on her face.

"And I'll probably have to start to beat you up every time I see you if you're planning to do that," Reimu responded quickly and headed deeper into Nitori's lab to the room where Nitori's teleporter was.

"Why are you here? I haven't caused more problems now, have I?" Nitori asked while running after Reimu with worried tone. She was worried that Reimu might beat her up for reasons that she wasn't even aware of and that Reimu might break something valuable. However Reimu didn't care about Nitori for she was there for one reason only. To find that teleporter. Once she finally found it, she pulled the white piece of fabric covering it and looked at it.

"You haven't deactivated this, have you?" Reimu asked after looking at the device before her for a moment.

"No, I have not. Now could you please explain what is all this commotion for?" Nitori asked after Reimu had finally stopped rummagíng through all the devices. It was then when Patchouli finally caught up with them and stepped inside the same room where Reimu and Nitori were.

"We need your help in getting contact to Sakuya, Sanae and pobably Marisa too," Patchouli said after stepping inside. Nitori and Reimu turned around and watched how Patchouli walked closer to the teleporter and inspected it.

"Could you by any chance modify this to create a temporary portal from one place to another. It should worth to notify that the portal must be kept active for a long period of time," Patchouli asked after looking at the teleporter for a while.

"I-I think it is possible, but I still don't get why do you need to do this," Nitori responded after thinking for a second.

"Sanae had this phone with her when she and Sakuya were sent after Marisa. Now we suspect that they might be in a life threatening danger and we must get in contact with them and warn them," Patchouli started to explain.

"We also need you to build a device which would allow us to get into contact with Sanae's phone," Patchouli continued and looked around hereslf in Nitori's lab.

"I suspect that this 'phone' is something like the ones I've gotten from the corpses of those unlucky gappies that have ended up in Gensokyo for some reason. I've researched them a little bit and I have to say that they are quite high tech, even for me. But I just might be able to pull it off," Nitori said with thoughtful look on her face and pulled out a box full of blueprints about the phones she had researched.

"So I just need to modify my teleporter, build a working transmitter, get it to the outside world and get in contact with them...," Nitori muttered half aloud and rubbed her chin.

"So, are you able to pull it off?" Reimu asked. She looked almsot like a dog that was begging for a treat from its owner.

"Hah, you're talking to me, Nitori Kawashiro. There isn't any challenge capable of keeping me down, but it is gonna take some time. Days, maybe weeks, but I'll still try my best," Nitori said with convincing and self confident tone and look on her face.

"Thank you. We're counting on you," Patchouli thanked Nitori with a bit relieved look on her face.

"Now, if you could leave me be, I could get to work. I need to concentrate," Nitori said to Reimu and Patchouli who just nodded and left Nitori, so she could start to work on that teleporter. Patchouli and Reimu were a bit more relieved now when they had a little bit more help, but they knew that they couldn't rest easy just yet. And neither could Marisa and Sakuya. Three days had passed until they finally reached Phoenix. Sakuya had managed to get them there without being noticed by police or any other major authority. Sakuya drove the shortest road possible, so they would reach Phoenix as quickly as possible. Because of this they had no time for sightseeing, but even if they didn't pass through any notable attraction, Marisa was still busy being amazed by everything she saw during their ride. They had reached the city when the sun had started to set. Just before they entered the city Sakuya dumped their car to the desert where it wouldn't be found, so Wolf wouldn't have any idea that they too were in Phoenix. After they had left their car they headed for some place where they could plan their next move. They had finally found a small and quiet enough park from the edge of the downtown where they were currently sitting on a bench. Marisa just adjusted her poisture a bit and tried to get some sleep, but Sakuya didn't let her. Sakuya had picked up a newspaper from the side of the bench and was reading it with serious look on her face. Marisa just looked at Sakuya for a moment with confused look on her face.

"Yawn* What did you find," Marisa asked and rubbed her eyes.

"I guess that we were just in time. Look at this. In the newspaper here is an article about the auction of the relics of Eric the Red. Seems like this Alonso De Guzman guy likes to make scene about the fact that he has these relics," Sakuya explained with serious look on her face and showed the news article to Marisa who looked at it for a moment.

"It says here that the auction is open for public, but I highly doubt that casual people would attend. I am sure that this is some fancy party meant for the collectors and rich. But be it as it may, this makes our job a lot easier," Sakuya muttered and rubbed her chin.

"Speaking of which, you mentioned three days ago that you had a plan. Now would be a good time to tell what it is," Marisa said, looked at Sakuya and put the newspaper down.

"It is simple really. We must infiltrate Guzman's mansion in the late evening when the auction is being held. Once we are in we split up. You must find your way to the vault or where ever the artefacts are being held and steal them while I distract Wolf. That is why I said that I need your thieving and sneaking skills. We have the element of surprise, so better use it now when we still have it. Once you have the artefacts we will trade them for Sanae's freedom and be done with all of this," Sakuya explained. Marisa looked at Sakuya for a moment with thoughtful look on her face before opening her mouth, "So how are we going to get in without attracting any unwanted attention?"

"That is the beauty in all of this. We will act as normal visitors attending to the auction. We just need to get proper clothes and we can just walk through the front door and start working on saving Sanae," Sakuya explained with mischevious grin on her face. Marisa could clearly see that Sakuya was a bit proud of her plan even if she didn't show it directly.

"So where are we going to get those clothes?" Marisa asked and looked around herself. Sakuya just silently pointed at the building in front of them. It was really tall and looked like an expensive place. It was comparable to the skyscrapers Marisa had seen in Tokyo.

"A hotel this big is bound to attract rich people and where there is rich people there are fancy clothes," Sakuya said and grinned. She was just about to open her mouth and stand up from the bench, but before she could do that Marisa grabbed her from her shoulder and kept her from standing up.

"I know what you're planning to do. Why don't you let me try? In the end I'll be the one stealing the artefacts, so I could use some warming up before that," Marisa said and grinned with self confident look on her face.

"Just tell me the details on how to do it and what clothes to steal and I'll get it done," Marisa continued and glanced at the building.

"Hmmm, I suppose you could. Where you get the clothes is not important. Pick just one random room and make sure you are alone. Rummage through the clothes and try to find something fancy looking. A dress or something like that. High heels are also recommended. Once you have the dress, be sure to grab one tuxedo too. You know, that usually white or black men's outfit you've probably seen in the advertisement while being in the outside world," Sakuya said after thinking about it for a while.

"That uncomfortable looking set of clothes usually together with that bow around the neck? Why do we need that?" Marisa asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"Just get what I told you to get. Once you are done meet me here and I will explain the rest," Sakuya said and signed Marisa to get going. Marisa just shrugged her shoulders and nodded before standing up from the bench and walking up to the road between them and the building. Sakuya looked how Marisa waited until she could cross the road and after when she finally got to the other side how she quickly sidled into the hotel.

"She is gonna attract so much unwanted attention, but still she might just be able to pull this off. Now show me what you are made of," Sakuya thought to herself with a bit concerned look on her face while looking at the hotel to which Marisa had entered just a moment ago.

"Whoa!" Marisa uttered when she entered the building and looked around herself. The hotel was fancier than the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Everyhting was tidy, shiny and really expensive looking. Few people looked at Marisa with a bit confused look on her face since her red checked shirt and jeans weren't really the first thing someone would expect from a customer of that hotel. Marisa ignored these people and started to think about a way to get her hands on those clothes Sakuya had told her to steal. She saw people going in and out of the elevator and up and down the stairs. Marisa had no idea what elevator was, so it took her a moment to get anywhere in that tall building. At first she just casually walked up the stairs, but once she realized that it would take her forever to get any where she stopped and thought for a strategy. She was currently standing in the corridor of the second floor and just watching how people entered and got out from the elevators.

"There's an afwully lot of them stuffing themselves to that small box. There must be a reason for that so might as well try it myself," Marisa muttered, shrugged her shoulders and stepped into the elevator together with a group of rich looking people. Those people looked at Marisa with a bit confused looks on their faces, but Marisa didn't care. She was actually a bit surprised when she felt the elevator moving.

"Holy moly, this world can be scary at the times...," Marisa thought to herself when she had recovered her balance after the elevator had started to move. She just stood there quietly and watched how on each floor there were people stepping in and out from the elevator. She decided to wait for a few floors more, because it seemed that the amount of people coming and going was decreasing on the higher floors. When there would be less people around it would be easier to "borrow" those clothes without being noticed.

Marisa waited for few floors more and then stepped out from the elevator together with two men. Marisa just watched how those two walked down the corridor and steped into their rooms. She then sighed and looked around herself. She was completely alone in the corridor. She then started slowly to walk down the corridor and gently tried every single door she encountered. After she had tried about eight door she felt a small tug on her back. She turned around, but saw nothing. She then felt something in her pocket. She reached into it and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Do not get caught by these!" Marisa read in her mind and saw a picture of a security camera drawn to the paper. She then looked around herself and saw few of those cameras around her.

"Well this seemed to be too easy to begin with...," Marisa bridled and put the paper back into her pocket. She guessed that Sakuya had stopped time, came to her and given her that piece of paper to make sure that she wasn't caught. She then stopped for a moment and thought carefully about her next move. She figured that she had to get rid of one of those cameras or otherwise she would be surely caught. She looked at the camer and watched how it moved slowly from side to side. She counted how many second it took for the camera to to do that turn to see if she had enough time to execute her plan. She then carefully and quickly took her other shoe off and counted down from five with her fingers. Then when the camera was pointing directly at her she stretched her arm back and yelled, "Sayonara!" She threw the shoe at the camera so that it was torn off from the wall by the force of the impact.

"Heh, that's how you take care of that problem," Marisa said and smirked. She then went to pick up her shoe and got back to that door next to which she was standing. She then pulled a hair pin from her hair and kneeled before the door. She put the pin into the lock and started to probe the lock. She just basically closed her eyes and focused onto those small signals that she got through the pin to her fingers. Years of lock picking had made her fingers quite sensitive, so it was quite easy for her to find the correct position where the lock would open. There was a faint click and Marisa pressed the door handle down. It opened slowly and silently. Marisa clapped her hands together and grinned.

"Alrighty, now we're getting somewhere," She muttered to herself as she sneaked into the room and closed the door behind herself. She looked around herself in the room. It was tidy, but there clearly lived someone, because there was two bags full of clothes next to the bed.

"Okay, let's dig in," Marisa said and started to rummage through the bags. At first she found only some casual clothes that she had seen people wearing all the time, so she kept digging, but then she pulled out a glimmering red dress. Marisa whistled a little. She held it up and looked at it for a long moment.

"Now that's... pretty impressive looking," Marisa muttered to herself and folded the dress into a small nice bundle. She kept digging through the bags and then found a a pair of red high heels that matched the color of the dress nicely. She then happened to look to the nightstand next to the table and grabbed a tube of lipstick from on top of it.

"Might as well take this. Sakuya might find this useful," Marisa thought to herself. And got back to the bags, but unfortunately wasn't able to find that suit that Sakuya had told her to find. She then stood up and rubbed her chin. She started to rummage through the rest of the room and when she finally opened the cabinets on the side of the room she finally found what she was looking for. There were at leats three full suits nicely hanging in the cabinet. She took the first one and looked at it carefully.

"Guess that this is good enough," She muttered and shrugged her shoulders. She then stuffed the clothes she had gathered to a plastic bag she found from the room and tossed it to her shoulder. She then turned around to walk through the door again, but soon realized that she couldn't just waltz out from the building with that suspicious bag on her shoulder. She stopped, thought for a second and then turned around towards the window. She walked up to the window, opened it and looked down. She was at least ten floors from the ground.

"Doesn't look too bad," Marisa muttered playfully and climbed to the other side of the window while keeping hold on to the edge of the window. She looked down and saw fire escapes going down to the street level on the side of the neighbour building.

"This time I don't have my broom as a back up, but oh well," Marisa muttered with indifferent tone and look on her face. Then she jumped backwards. She did a backflip in the air to see where she was going to land. She fell four floors until she was close enough to grab the railing of the fire escapes. She reached for it and was just able to grab it, but unfortunately her grip wasn't strong enough, so she slipped and fell down to the next platform of the fire escapes, and from there to the next one. She kept rolling and falling down the fire escapes, until she reached the second to last platform from where she fell straight to the ground level to on top of a trash can.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Marisa whined while getting up slowly and holding her back.

"Damn, I should have guessed that it would und up like this," Marisa continued and rubbed her forehead. She then sat up and hopped off from on top of the trash can. It hurt like hell, but at least she hadn't broken any of her bones which was a total miracle. After she could finally walk properly when it didn't hurt so much anymore, she rallied and headed back to where she was supposed to meet Sakuya. She left the alley between the two buildings and entered the walkway with the bag on her shoulder. Few people glanced at her with strange look on their face, but Marisa didn't care. As soon as she could she crossed the road to its other side where she saw Sakuya still sitting on the same bench.

"You may be the most glaring thief I have ever seen, but you also might just be the most brilliant," Sakuya said while sitting on the bench lazily and grinned while watching how Marisa aproached her.

"Now that's what I like to hear," Marisa responded with a wide grin on her face. She then sat next to Sakuya and gave her the bag. Sakuya took a peek inside and nodded gently.

"These all are most likely wrong sized, but they will have to do," Sakuya said and gave the bag back to Marisa. She then stood up and signed Marisa to do the same.

"So where are we headed now?" Marisa asked as she ran after Sakuya who started to walk along to walkway.

"To the Guzman's manison of course. The auction will be held at night. We might want to get there before it happens to prepare ourselves and plan this thing out," Sakuya responded and signed Marisa to follow. Marisa threw the bag to her shoulder again as she started following Sakuya.

The night fell upon the Phoenix and there were a lots of commotion around the Guzman's mansion. Fancy cars coming and going and millionaires and billionaires all over the place. Only exception were Sakuya and Marisa who hadn't joined the party just yet. They were currently near the parking lot hiding behind the trees and bushes. Sakuya pulled out the lipstick Marisa had snatched from the hotel and used it on her lips. She looked towards the mansion and all the people attending to the auction. She smirked and then turned around and looked at Marisa who was trying to wrap a piece of clothing around her chest as tightly as she could. She was currently wearing the suit trousers and shoes that she stole from the hotel.

"Come on. Why I have to play the man?" Marisa bridled while tying the piece of cloth behind her back.

"You are not as feminine as I am, so it will go unnoticed longer and besides you will be with the other guests only for a short time," Sakuya responded with serious look on her face. Marisa knew that Sakuya could twit her about it, but once she saw the seriousness on Sakuya's face she knew that Sakuya wasn't in the mood for jokes. After Marisa got that cloth tied she put the white dress shirt on and the suit jacket on top of it. Sakuya then helped her to tie that bow tie around Marisa's neck. After that Sakuya tied Marisa's hair around her chin and lips to make it look like a beard. At first Marisa had thought that it was a stupid idea, but after Sakuya was finished the hair tied in front of Marisa's face looked like beard more than Marisa had thought. Sakuya looked at Marisa for a moment and then nodded.

"Now remember, I will be the one doing the talking. You just be quiet and as soon as you get a chance slip away from the main hall. Just stay in the shadows and avoid detection with any means possible. And I mean with any," Sakuya said and looked at Marisa's eyes with strict look on her face. Marisa then just nodded and replied, "As long as you keep Wolf distracted from suspecting that I'm around I'll get you the artefacts." Sakuya then just nodded and signed Marisa to follow her. They entered the parking lot and started to walk towards the mansion with the other guests. No one had semed to realize that Sakuya and Marisa just popped out from the thicket so they could blend in quite easily. Sakuya had actually gotten a hands free ear-buds for both of them while Marisa had been stealing the clothes for them. It was important for them to stay in touch for they had to know if either one of them got into problems. Both of them were also carrying a gun just incase the auction turned into a shooting range. They couldn't afford taking any risks for they knew that Sanae's life was depending on them. Unluckily they couldn't use their bulletproof vests because they would have been seen from under their clothes especially Sakuya's dress, so they needed to be extra careful They just walked with the other guests to the mansion. Inside they were greeted by a man who had a list in his hands.

"Welcome, may I have your names please. This is just a safety method to keep track of the people coming and going," The man said and smiled gently.

"Of course. Martin and Mercedes Scarlet," Sakuya responded immediately and smiled gently at the man.

"And if you may, please add a notification that my husband would not be spoken to without me. He is mute you see and cannot communicate without me," Sakuya continued and looked at Marisa.

"Sure thing. I hope that you and your husband have a pleasant stay at Guzman's mansion," The man replied and made some notes to the list. Sakuya just nodded and grabbed an auction pamphlet from a nearby stand. There were information about the objects that were being sold and when each item would be sold. There was going to be a short prom before the actual auction. During that Marisa should already be after the items. They walked to the main hall where they saw the whole grandeur of that auction. Every corner of the space was decorated and it seemed that the auction was going to cost more in itself than it could pay for the Guzman.

"Guzman is really expecting to make a good profit," Sakuya muttered to Marisa who just looked around herself with amazed look on her face.

"Come, let's get you into going," Sakuya said and signed Marisa to follow her. They walked near the western side wall of the hall where there were less people, but many doors through which the staff of the mansion constantly walked through. Sakuya then gently tucked Marisa's side to get her attention.

"Easiest way to get out of this place is to use one of these doors. Just make sure that you are not seen while entering or after that," Sakuya whispered to nodding Marisa who sidled her foot between the door and the doorframe after a waitress walked through it. The door was now slightly open, and Marisa could see though it when there wouldn't be any staff members to see her when she would go through it. Sakuya looked around herself. She saw more people walking into the main hall to wait for the prom and the auction to start.

"It would be wise to get going. There is starting to be too many pairs of eyes," Sakuya whispered to Marisa, but after finishing her sentence and looking at where Marisa had stood, she saw that Marisa was already gone.

"Let's hope you can pull this off," Sakuya thought to herself while looking at the door. She then turned away from it and walked to the center of the hall where most of the people were. She grabbed a drink for herself and found herself a place where she could see the front door and most of the hall at the same time. It was just matter of time until she would see Wolf. She just kept glaring around herself. Before coming to Gensokyo parties like these weren't uncommon for her. She knew well how to behave and act in these situations, but she also knew to stay careful. While being surrounded by rich people you cannot know what kind of unscrupulous people you're dealing with. As far as Sakuya knew, some of them could have same kind of plan to steal the artefacts as she and Marisa did. And when considering that most of the people here were millionaires they could easily pull it off. More easily than she and Marisa.

Sakuya was absorbed in her thoughts, but once she happened to look at the main door again her heart skipped a beat when she saw a very familiar person arriving. It was Wolf. He was wearing a white suit and a red bowtie around his neck.

"Well judging by your outfit, you are not planning to blow up the place," Sakuya thought to herself and withdrew to the middle of the crowd, so Wolf wouldn't recognize her yet. She had the element of surprise and she didn't want to waste it.

Meanwhile Marisa was busy making her way deeper into the mansion. She was currently sitting in the bush at the inner courtyard. There were surprisingly many guards which slowed her down. It was dark, so it was unlikely that she would be seen if she wasn't caught in the lights. She waited till two of the guard had passed by her, so she could proceed closer to the other side of the courtyard. She saw that there was a cote on top of a walkway next to a wall. The cote was held up by pillars and one of the pillars got a drainpipe on its side. There was only one narrow pathway between the bush she was sitting in and the drainpipe which she could use to climb on top of that cote. There she could scout things out and continue to search the vault where the artefacts were being held. She watched as the guard walked by the bush then she dashed from her cover and rolled to the bush on the other side of the pathway. The bush she was currently in was just next to the drainpipe. She made sure that no guard was looking at her direction and once she was sure she grabbed the drainpipe and started to climb as fast and silently as she could. Once she got on top she quickly laid down on top of the cote and sighed for relief. It seemed that no one had seen her so far. She then switched the handsfree on and whispered, "So how are the thing going on your end?"

"Nothing worth of reporting yet except that Wolf has already arrived. I will be sure to have a nice chat with him soon," Sakuya respoded to Marisa through the ear-bud.

"Okay, I'll continue my search. If you run into any trouble contact me," Marisa said before switching the handsfree off. She then stood up and walked up to the wall where there was a window. She looked around herself to make sure she wouldn't be seen and then climbed through it. She was now staning in a corridor. It all looked as fancy as the main hall, but it was much more quieter than in the hall.

"Now then. Where do I need to go to find the vault?" Marisa muttered and started to walk along to corridor. She didn't hear or see anyone else, but she was still being careful for she couldn't tell when someone could enter the corridor. A waiter or waitress could pop out out of nowhere.

"This acually looks kinda lot like the Scarlet Devil mansion... And if I've learned anything from them, the stuff that you don't want anyone else to find is... in the basement," Marisa thought to herself and looked to her right where there was a door slightly ajar through which she could see stairs leading downwards. She opened the door carefully and peeked inside. The fancy look of the mansion stopped immediately after the door. The concrete walls were exposed and there were pipes going along the roof.

"Looks promising," Marisa muttered and shut the door behind her. She walked down the stairs until she got to the end of them. Pipes were all over the place, some of them being hot and some cold. She then happened to look up and saw a sign where it read, "boilery". Marisa's English skills were good enough that she understood what it said in that sign. She then started walking again to the far end of the room she was currently in. At the back of the room there was a metal door. Marisa looked at it for a moment and then pressed it open. There was another staircase leading downwards. Marisa then just grinned and started descending the steps.

Above her Sakuya was getting ready to confront Wolf. It seemed that Wolf was alone. There didn't seem to be anyone accompanying him, but Sakuya knew better. She knew that Wolf wasn't stupid enough to come alone. Sakuya kept looking around herself as she walked behind Wolf. She then put her drink down to a nearby stand and said, "You may think that you have gotten rid of me, but I am afraid that you are going to need more than explosives and hundred thousand tons of dirt to keep me buried." Sakuya looked with dead serious look on her face at Wolf as he turned around with unbelieving look on his face towards Sakuya.

"You," Wolf uttered and looked like he had seen a ghost. Wolf then gathered himself and continued, "Give me a one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right where you stand. You killed Sophie, you killed her and you can be sure that I will kill you," Wolf groaned between his teeth and looked like he could blow up at any give moment, but against all odds he could amintain his calm even if Sakuya was just standing in front of him.

"No, I did not kill your girl. It was your own cowardness... and order to kill us that killed her. But currently all that matters that we are here, so let us discuss about business," Sakuya said with strict tone and look on her face.

"I have nothing to discuss with you. I might as well give an order to kill you right away," Wolf said and looked furious.

"That would be most unwise. First of all, you cannot kill me even if you tried, secondly we are in a public auction, it would really ruin your name and get in the way of your treasure hunt if you were to start shooting here. And thirdly, I think that if you were to just listen to me we all could benefit from this," Sakuya said and glared into Wolf's eyes. She then heard how the orchestra started to play the first song of the prom that was being held before the actual auction.

"Well then, we might as well enjoy ourselves. In the end we are here to enjoy this event, are we not," Sakuya said with forced smile on her face and led Wolf to the dance floor together with her. She really hadn't plan this, but she just did what she thought would be the best way to get Wolf to agree her deal. Sakuya didn't like that she was going to dance with her enemy, but at least it would keep Wolf's mercenaries from shooting where ever they may hide.

"Listen, my deal is very simple, release my friend and give our belongings back and we will leave you alone for good," Sakuya said while looking directly into Wolf's eyes.

"After all the trouble and grief you have given to me, I am not going to let you go so easily. You and your friend are going to pay dearly," Wolf hissed back at Sakuya as they were dancing.

"No matter from which angle you look at it, it was you who killed your girl, not us. Just let Sanae go and give that hexagonal box back," Sakuya insisted with serious look on her face.

"Ah that, I'm sorry, but I find that little box of yours very intriguing. I'm afraid that after you stole my family's belongings I'm not gonna return it," Wolf said and made unamused grin to his face.

"We are not thieves. We found it by accident," Sakuya retorted and stepped on to Wolf's toes. Wolf groaned a little and almost tripped to the floor. After recovering his stance he groaned and tried to punch Sakuya, but Sakuya just bent herself backwards like in real tango and kicked Wolf to his crotch. Wolf just whimpered and held his crotch as he withdrew from the dancefloor with humiliated look on his face. Sakuya just stood there and just glared after Wolf for a few seconds. Then an old gentleman approached Sakuya and stopped when he was just beside her.

"Pretty bold move you made there, young lady. Rarely have I seen someone humiliating a member of the Wolf family like that," The man complimented.

"Trust me he deserved it," Sakuya responded without even looking at the man.

"Oh I know that. Adam Wolf's grandson is known to be a total asshole unlike his grandfather. Trust me, there are more people here who would be happy that he never would have arrived here than people who arent't bothered by his presence," The man said while looking at the Wolf who was leaning against a marble pillar with painful look on his face.

"That did not come to me as a surprise," Sakuya responded and grinned a little.

"Be it as it may, I wish you enjoyable evening my lady," The man said and nodded to Sakuya before leaving her.

"I am enjoying this already," Sakuya thought to herself and switched her handsfree ear-bud on.

"How is it going Marisa?" Sakuya whispered to her friend.

"I'm slowly but surely getting closer to the vault. I'm currently in the basement of the mansion and the security is getting quite tight," Marisa responded with a bit exhausted tone.

"Where are you now exactly?" Sakuya continued with a bit confused tone after hearing marisa panting a little.

"In an air conditioning duct or what ever Nitori called these. I'm directly above guards' break room," Marisa responded quietly.

"Copy that, keep on going. The prom has started already, but I am sure that you will have some time still," Sakuya said with a bit concerned tone.

"Okay, I'll contact you if anything happens," Marisa responded and switched her handsfree off. She then kept crawling as quietly as she could. She could hear the guards below her speaking and she could even see them from time to time through the grids of the duct. By the looks of it, they were heavily armed, but that only confirmed Marisa's suspections that she was getting close. After a minute she was sure that she had passed the break room and was currently above a corridor. She carefully opened one of the grids of the duct and peeked out to see where she was. She saw only concrete walls and a heavy security door at the end of the corridor. She then shut the grid again and smiled. It seemed that she could get to the other side of the door via that duct. She then picked up her pace and crawled until she reached the end of the duct. She then opened the grid that was the closest to the end of the duct and peeked out. She was above a white room that had the security door on the other side of it and a heavy metal vault door at the opposite side. Marisa's grin widened as she dropped down from the duct and rushed to inspect that vault door. It had this screwable numer combination that you had to crack before it would open. Marisa backed away from the door for a second and just looked at it. She knew that this door was going to be a challenge even for her. She had once before experimented on this type of lock when she had seen a small safe in Rinnosuke's shop, but she had never tackled anything this big.

"Okay monstrosity, may the best win," Marisa said with selfconfident look on her face, pressed her ear against the vault door and sarted turning the code mechanism. She turned the mechanism and listened the faint clicks it made. She had learned this tactic from the safe she had cracked at the Rinnosuke's shop, but even she had to admit that this was harder to crack than anything she had ever encountered, but even so she didn't want to give up. She kept on listening until she thought she had found a pattern. She started to turn the mechanism to the opposite directions until she started to find the correct combination. After twelve minutes of silently turning the mechanism she finally separated her ear from the door and looked at the mechanism and then inserted the code one, five, three. After inserting the code she turned the valve and to her surprise it opened.

"Whoa... I'm good," Marisa uttered with amazed look on her face as she watched how the door opened slowly. However she knew she didn't have much time to just stand there gawking for she had to hurry up and find the artefacts of Eric the Red. She charged in and turned her handsfree ear-bud on.

"Sakuya! I'm inside the vault, what am I supposed to look for in here?" Marisa asked while looking through the shelves that were full of objects that all seemed to be historical artefacts.

"Ehh, something related to vikings, or Erik or anything that just seems like it would be what we are looking for," Sakuya responded with unsure tone.

"Oh, wait a moment, I have the pamphlet where all the objects being sold are shown. Wait just one moment... a-ha! From Erik the Red's artefacts there are three that are being sold. A ceremonial curved dagger made of bronze, a huge wrought piece of animal skin and a set of earthen jars that seem to be painted," Sakuya listed while looking at the pamphlet.

"Okay... okay... let's se-oh, I think I found it! In one of the shelves it reads 'The Labrador Excavation'. That must be it," Marisa enthused after reading the text on the shelf.

"Excellent. Grab the objects and get out of there," Sakuya commanded. Marisa immediately grabbed the ceremonial dagger and put it into her pocket. She then grabbed the piece of animal skin and pulled it off from the shelf, but she had miscalculated its weigth and dropped it on to the floor.

"Shit! Its way too big and heavy that I could move it anywhere," Marisa bridled and rolled it open to see what kind of decorations it had. To her surprise it wasn't too beautiful. It was covered in light blue paint and had once again that 'Hannunvaakuna' symbol painted to it with light yellow color.

"Not... quite what I was expecting, but at least we're on to something," Marisa muttered and grabbed the edge of that piece of animal skin and flipped it to its other side.

"Now we're talking," Marisa thought to herself when she saw that the other side of that piece of skin was painted black and had dozens of white spots on it. She then immediately turned her handsfree on and contacted Sakuya.

"It's that piece of animal skin we need. There seems to be a star map painted to its other side and that 'Hannunvaakuna on its other side," Marisa explained hastily.

"Great, can you get it out of there?" Sakuya asked with a bit worried tone.

"Don't think so. It's just too heav- wait, someone's coming," Marisa whispered and went quiet. She had heard footsteps from the room behind the vault door. She quickly dashed behind the wall next to that vault door and saw how one guard armed with an assault rifle walked in while looking around himself.

"Hey! I know somone's in here, so come out!" The guard yelled while walking past Marisa. Marisa had grabbed one of those earthen jars before hiding. She lifted her hand and struck the jar to the guards head with all she got. The guard was knocked out and the jar destroyed.

"Sakuya, how long till the auction starts!? One of the guards just entered the vault, but I knocked him out," Marisa yelled with frantic tone.

"Shit. You need to get the hell out of there," Sakuya responded with frustrated tone.

"Oh, wait just one moment," Marisa said suddenly. She just realized that there had been something in that jar. It seemed like a piece of animal skin, though it was much smaller one than the one she had found from the shelf.

"Hahaa, Sakuya, you wont believe this. In that urn which I used to knock that guard down, there was an exact copy of that larger peice of animal skin," Marisa enthused and put it into her pocket, but her joy was cut short when she heard more steps from the outside of the vault.

"Crap, I got what I came for, but I'm not gonna get out if you don't cause a distraction for these guards," Marisa whispered hastly.

"What!? Are you insane, I cannot do that, the place is filled with Wolf's men," Sakuya responded immediately.

"You better figure something out soon, because things in here might get hot pretty quick," Marisa retorted and grabbed the assault rifle the guard had dropped.

"Hey Sakuya, how do you use this rifle?" Marisa asked after picking it up.

"What rifle? What are you doing down there?" Sakuya asked with confused tone.

"Just tell me," Marisa retorted with frustrated tone.

"I need to know the model, can you find that?" Sakuya asked hastly.

"Uhmmm... F2000 reads here. Is it good enough?" Marisa repsonded after inspecting the rifle for a moment.

"Yep, just make sure you have ammo in the magazine and pull the slider back," Sakuya instructed as well as she could.

"Okay, you better figure out something, because otherwise I cannot get out of here without being seen," Marisa said before disconnecting. Sakuya then quickly looked around herself to see what she could do to cause havoc. Sakuya then just sighed because she didn't see anything useful. She then grabbed her gun from under her dress that was in a holster tied around her foot. After pulling her gun out she shot once at the ceiling. Everyone in the main hall took cover and looked at the direction where the shot had been fired. Few screams could also be heard.

"Now then, before anyone tries to shoot me, allow me to have few words. Yes this is a armed robbery and no I wont shoot any of you if you just stay in your places. But what if I told you I am not the only one with a gun in this room? There are currently few dozen men aiming at me with weapons, but none of those are the guards of this mansion, so... who are they?" Sakuya said and made allusive grin to her face. Few of the guards who were aiming at Sakuya with their weapons looked carefully around themselves and saw few men standing on the balconies and aiming at Sakuya.

"Kill her!" Wolf then shouted from the crowd. Few guards turned towards Wolf, but he shot them immediately himself. He then turned towards the place where Sakuya had stood, but she had already disappeared. After that more guards started storming the hall which drove them and Wolf's mercenaries into firefight. Wolf took cover himself and tried to find Sakuya while all the people were trying to escape. However he didn't see Sakuya anywhere, because she had already left the hall with her time stopping ability. She was currently trying to get out from the mansion via some other way than the front door because everyone tried to rush out in panic. She was currently running through an empty corridor towards what seemed like an inner courtyard. She was just about to contact Marisa when she felt someone touching her shoulder. She immediately turned around and took aim, but she was surprised to find that the person who touched her was the man who had talked to her earlier. At first Sakuya lowered her stance, but took aim again once she saw the revolver the man was holding.

"Just because we spoke earlier does not mean that I would hesitate to kill you," Sakuya hissed between her teeth.

"No, you certainly wouldn't, but I gotta say that you're more talented than I thought. Is your partner currently escaping the vault?" The man asked and smirked a little.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Sakuya responded with furious look on her face.

"Be it so. I'm just saying that I could help you. I've done something like this before and it seems that you could use a hand," The man said with relaxed look on her face.

"Why would I trust the word of a stranger. You would not do it just from the kindness of your heart I take it?" Sakuya said and glared at the man.

"Well let's just say that an old retired criminal can use some exitement from time to time and I'd dare to say that you've earned my help already. Rarely have I ever seen someone directly comfronting Alexander Wolf. It is truly a time for that son of a bitch to be taught a lesson," The man replied and nodded towards Sakuya's gun to indicate that she could lover it without fear. Sakuya then slowly did so while keeping her eye on the man.

"Now then, it's much better like this. Oh, and you can call me Vic, I have a car parked at the parking lot, but first let us go retrieve your friend," The man said and started walking towards the inner courtyard. Sakuya followed him with a bit confused look on her face. She didn't expect to get help from a stranger.

They quickly arrived to the inner courtyard. There were few Guzman's guards running through and patrolling it, but it seemed that the most of the attention had been turned towards the main hall where the firefigth had started. Sakuya then switched her hands free on and tried to contact Marisa to know what the situation was.

"Marisa, come in, are you okay?" Sakuya asked hastly, but silently so they wouldn't be heard by the guards.

"Pant* pant* Phew, I'm currently running trhough the roofs, no time to chat. I managed to get out of the vault without being seen, but when I was heading back up this one guard saw me and now I'm being chased by a dozen of them," Sakuya heard Marisa yelling through the hands free. They then heard few gunshots being shot from above them and saw Marisa jumping from one roof to another. Sakuya then quickly stood up and yelled at the Vic, "We must get to her before they do!" Sakuya then took aim and shot few guards who were standing in the inner courtyard. Vic then joined her and shot the rest of the guards at the courtyard.

"Quickly, we must get to the roofs," Sakuya yelled and started climbing a drainpipe on the side of a marble pillar that was holding up the cote surrounding the courtyard.

"Maybe I'm getting too old for this crap," Vic complained after following Sakuya's lead. While climbing they saw Marisa taking cover and shooting at the guards who were shooting at her position. Sakuya picked up her pace and reached the roof top soon. She then took aim and shot three of the guards down immediately. Few of the guards turned their attention to Sakuya while few kept shooting at Marisa. Vic finally reached the roof and Sakuya and joined the firefight by shooting one of the guards that was shooting at Marisa. Marisa then returned the favor by shooting all three guards that were shooting at Sakuya and Vic. Only three guards remained, but Sakuya took care of one of them by throwing a knife at him while reloading.

"Look down there!" Marisa yelled when she saw Wolf's men running through the courtyard below them towards the vault. Vic then stood up and shot the remaining two guards. It seemed that Wolf's men couldn't care less about the precence of Sakuya, Marisa and Vic. Marisa then stood up from her cover and ran up to Sakuya and by jumping from one roof to another.

"Phew, clad you came, I wasn't sure I'd have gotten myself out of that mess alive," Marisa said with relived tone while leaning against her knees.

"By the way, who's this now?" Marisa asked after she had caught her breath.

"Someone who calls himself Vic. He has offered to help us. I don't know why though," Sakuya said and Vic offered her hand and introduced himself to Marisa. Marisa shook his hand while looking at Sakuya with confused look on her face. Sakuya just shrugged her shoulders.

"Sakuya, I don't think we have good enough lead here to be able to buy Sanae's freedom with these. That larger peice of animal skin is still in the vault there. Those men are surely after that. We have that dagger though, but I'm not sure if it is even essential or not," Marisa said with a bit frustrated tone and look on her face.

"Let's worry about that later. For now whe have to get out of here. So Vic, the car?" Sakuya said and turned towards her new acquaintance.

"Right this way," Vic said and signed the girls to follow him. Marisa still wasn't sure why Sakuya was trusting this man, but if she knew what she was doing Marisa wasn't going to question it. They leapt through the roofs and tried to stay low so they wouldn't be noticed by the guards or Wolf's men who were still fighting each other inside the mansion. Most of the people had escaped already and when they finally saw the parking lot there were only few cars standing there.

"That black one over there," Vic said and pointed at the car parked as far away from the mansion as possible. Sakuya then just nodded squatted down and grabbed the drainpipe on the corner of the mansion. She slided down as silently as she could and she was soon followed by Marisa and Vic. They quickly and silently ran through the empty parking lot. They could still hear the gunfire coming from the mansion while running away. Vic opened the car's doors and as soon as he did they all dashed into the car and Vic drove away from the mansion with tires screeching.

"Heh... heheh, we did it. *Phew We actually did it," Marisa finally said after the mansion had disappeared from their view.

"Yeah, seems like. So... eh... Vic? You can drop us to the side of the road so we can be on our way," Sakuya then said and looked for a good spot where they could be left.

"Not a chance. The whole city will be storming with cops soon enough. You'll attract as much attention as a hooker in a church in those outfits.

"Which brings in mind that we left our own clothes back to that mansion," Marisa said and looked through the back window.

"Well I do not suppose we left anything crucial to the pockets of those clothes, so we can just leave them there," Sakuya responded and then turned towards Vic with serious look on her face.

"I have my own little peaceful place just outside the city borders. We can head there and I demand you to tell me about your little adventure here. I can also give you a spare pair of clothes if you want," Vic said while trying to drive using roads with less traffic so they wouldn't be caught by cops who they were starting to see everywhere heading towards the Guzman's mansion. Marisa and Sakuya looked at each other and then at Vic.

"Sounds fair enough, but I will warn you that if you show any signs of treachery I wont hesitate to kill you," Sakuya warned Vic to which he just laughed a bit. They drove away from the city for about half an hour until they came across a fairly big cabin out there in the wilderness. Vic stopped the car outside the cabin and stepped out.

"This is where I currently live. A secluded enough place for an old man like me," Vic said and laughed a bit. Marisa and Sakuya stepped out from the car and looked at the building in front of them.

"Well at least it is a proper hiding place," Sakuya muttered before following Vic inside the cabin with Marisa. Vic switched the lights on so they could see around themselves. It was pretty comfortable looking place actually. Vic then opened the door of one of the rooms and went inside while Sakuya and Marisa sat on to a sofa. Vic then returned with a two sets of clothes and gave them to the girls.

"These are men's clothes, but I'd still say that they are more comfortable than your current ones," Vic said with apologizing look on his face and went to sit on one of the chairs around the kitchen table to wait for Marisa and Sakuya to change their outfits. Marisa thought the men's clothes felt weird. Not necessarily bad, but too spacious to what she had been used to. She took the artefacts she had stolen back at the mansion from the pockets of her suit and she and Sakuya returned to Vic. They sat before him around the table and Marisa put the artefacts on to the table.

"Okay what's with these items? What are you after?" Vic asked and pointed at the piece of animal skin and the dagger.

"Okay, let me explain from the start. Marisa, here, happened to found an interesting stone tablet which told about some long lost treasure. She wanted to chase it despite everyone trying to warn her about the dangers. Me and Sanae went after her after she left, but decided to help her to find the treasure more safely. That is until we got competition," Sakuya explained and looked at Vic who was fascinated by the piece of animal skin.

"Wolf, I assume?" Vic said after lifting his gaze from the objects.

"Exactly. We still decided to continue our pursuit for the treasure which led us to Finland and to the roots of that treasure. There we found out that the treasure is actually Sampo...," Sakuya explained, but was soon interrupted by Vic.

"Wait a god damn moment. You're telling me that you're chacing Sampo? That legendary mythological mill that grinds you infinite amount of gold, salt and flour?" Vic asked with confused and unbelieving look on his face.

"Just let me finish. Yes, we are after Sampo and we got proof that it exists. We found the place where it was originally held and genuine gold coins that had the same insignia as does the piece of that animal skin," Sakuya said and pointed at the object.

"I see, and the same insignia is on this dagger too," Vic said after looking at the dagger for a moment.

"Huh, I did not realize that the symbol had been carved to this too," Sakuya muttered while looking at the dagger in Vic's hands.

"Is there? Well now we know at leats that the dagger has some importance," Marisa said and looked at the dagger with enthused look on her face.

"However, in Finland Sanae got captured by Wolf. We decided to ambandon the treasure hunt, save her and get away from Wolf as soon as possible. We tracked thses objects to that Guzman's auction and stole them to be used as exchange for Sanae's freedom, but it seems that if Wolf's men found the other piece of that animal skin we can safely assume that the dagger wont be enough to get Sanae released," Sakuya said and leaned against the table with her elbows.

"You bet. This is definitely some sort of a star map. They can use that to track down the treasure and if this dagger is used as some key, they don't necessarily need it, for explosives will do the trick if needed," Vic said with serious look on his face after inspecting the dagger. He then layed down the dagger and looked at Sakuya and Marisa with serious look on his face.

"I hate to say it, but if you're planning to save your friend by exchanging the treasure for her life, you need to find it before Wolf," Vic said with dead serious tone.

"That is easier said than done. This map shows the location of the said treasure, but without sextant I cannot measure the exact location for that treasure by using this map," Sakuya said with frustrated look on her face.

"Well I haven't been in the navy for nothing," Vic said, stood up from his chair and walked up to a drawer near the table. He then pulled out a fairly big cardboard box and opened it.

"I can pretty safely say that I have all the required tools right here," Vic said and laughed a bit. Sakuya looked at the contents of the box with impressed look on her face.

"You have afwully lot of useful stuff you know," Sakuya said, looked at Vic and grinned.

"Well didn't I say earlier that I've been in this metier for a long time. And even after my retirement I saw no point in throwing this stuff away," Vic said and laughed a bit more.

"But anyhow, I expect that you already noticed that this one star in the center of the map is being highlighted. What do you bet that in the exact middle of the night this star can be seen just above the place where that treasure of yours is buried and judging by the fact that some of the constellations seen on this map can be seen in the sky right now it cannot be too far away," Vic said with much more serious look on his face and glared into Sakuya's eyes. Sakuya the rubbed her chin a bit and then looked at Vic.

"Okay, let's go get the coordinates for our final destination," Sakuya said with determined tone and look on her face and stood up from her chair.

"Marisa, me and Vic are going outside to see where we need to go next. Wait here it is not going to take too long," Sakuya said while looking at Marisa. Marisa just nodded silently and looked how Sakuya and Vic headed outside after Sakuya had took a picture of that star map with Sanae's phone that she still had. Sakuya and Vic headed outside while Marisa sat before the table. She just stared at the dagger on the table. Something about it seemed strange. She took the dagger and inspected it carefully. The blade seemed to be made of silver with gold decorations while the handle seemed to be bronze. She then happened to look the join where the blade and the handle met and saw that the two were separate pieces. She thought about it for a moment and then tried to screw it open to see if it was possible to separate those two parts. To Marisa's suprise it worked. The handle was much more loose than she had though actually. The blade came of quite easily and some transparent liquid dropped from the handle on to the star map.

"Ehhhh... crap?" Marisa muttered to herself and scratched her hair after she realized that she had poured that liquid on top of their map, but she was surprised to see that it didn't seem to leave any kind of stains to the piece of leather. Marisa the picked up the map and inspected it carefully. She the turned it around and was quite amazed. On those spots where the liquid poured form the dagger came in contact with that yellow paint some strange markings became visible on those yellow lines. She then carefully poured rest of the contents of that handle on to those yellow lines and saw that those were actually full of writing that became visible after you poured that liquid from the handle on top of it. Marisa looked at the markings with amazed look on her face.

"I have to show this to Sakuya," Marisa enthused, grabbed the map and ran outside where Sakuya and Vic were measuring the coordinates where they needed to head next.

"Sakuya, you wont believe this!" Marisa yelled after running through the door. Sakuya turned her gaze towards Marisa with confused look on her face.

"What now?" Sakuya asked with a bit annoyed tone. Marisa then ran up to her and showed her the writing on the other side of the map.

"Wh... Where did this come from?" Sakuya asked from Marisa while holding the piece of leather in her hands.

"It was the dagger. The handle and the blade were removable and there was some liquid in it which when poured on to the piece of leather made the text visible," Marisa enthused with proud look on her face.

"Only person lucky enough to find something like this is you," Sakuya said with imressed and a little amused tone and look on her face. Vic joined them soon. He had been measuring the coordinates and had finally managed to make them quite accurate.

"I have the coordinates now. What did you find?" Vic asked after putting away his sextant. Sakuya then showed him the text Marisa had found and explained how she had found it.

"Native americans sure knew how to be crafty. Hmmm... If you don't mind, I'll take a picture of this and I'll send it to a contact of mine who is an expert when it comes to native american languages. He could help us out. It would be wise to see what is written there before you continue," Vic said and looked at Sakuya to wait for her opinion.

"You do that. It is wise to try to gather all the information we can," Sakuya said and nodded. Vic thanked her and took a picture of the writing. They then returned inside to the cabin where Vic wrote down the coordinates he had gotten with the sextant. He then went to the other room to talk with his associate. Meanwhile Sakuya was inspecting the coordinates Vic had given to her. She was looking through the maps she coud find from the internet with Sanae's phone.

"Northeastern Peru... Looks like we are heading into jungle," Sakuya said with thoughtful look on her face.

"What is it?" Marisa asked after seeing Sakuya's impression.

"It just does not make sense. These artefacts were found from the reamins of Erik the Red's colony who apparently stole Sampo from Finland. Why are we heading to South America? How and why did it get there?" Sakuya explained while rubbing her chin.

"Well imagine, that thing, Sampo, can grind gold from nothing. Wveryone would want their hands on it," Marisa said with her eyes glowing with greed.

"Watch yourself, we are not after the treasure. We are freeing Sanae and heading home after that. And for some reason I doubt that it is the gold why this artefact moves around the world so fast. You remember the writing on the wall of that cave back then where it was told that they, who ever created Sampo tried to keep it away from the world, " Sakuya said with troubled look on her face and while looking through the window.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember what I promised, but I highly doubt that Sampo is actually cursed. Outside world lacks magical powers almost completely. Curses are spells in themselves. Outside world really isn't place where those can appear naturally," Marisa insisted while looking at Sakuya and shrugged her shoulders.

"Lacks magic? Then what am I? I was born in the outside world (or so I think). How do you explain that?" Sakuya asked with strict look on her face.

"Well weren't you born long before Gensokyo was separated? Outside world probably had enough magical energy back then," Marisa said with thoughtful tone.

"And Sampo was created in the age long since forgotten. There is something shady going on with that treasure of yours," Sakuya said and glared deep into Marisa's eyes with dead serious look on her face. While they had been arguing Vic had had his discussion with his associate who had provided him a translation of the text. He then returned to the kitched where Sakuya and Marisa had been waiting for him.

"So, what did your associate have to say about the writing?" Sakuya asked and looked at Vic who had a sheet of paper in his hands.

"This is the translation. For some reason I'm not surprised about its content," Vic said and handed Sakuya the sheet of paper to Sakuya who started reading it out loud to Marisa.

"The white men came. A profaned mill in their possession. First they gained our trust by offering us food and wealth, but after our hungers foor gold and food had been satisfied a terrible curse was cast upon us. The curse undid the white men and us. So we take the profaned mill away to our brothers who know how to keep it away from the hands of men," Sakuya read out loud and once she was finished she just blankly stared at the paper.

"Sooooo... what? Sampo somehow killed the rest of Erik the Red's men and the native americans too? But what was that thing about brothers?" Marisa asked with confused but fascinated look on her face.

"Other tribes. Other native americans. They probably believed that the southern civilisations would have means to deal with the CURSE that you seem to want to ignore," Sakuya said with almost angry tone and look on her face. Marisa then backed away a little bit after seeing Sakuya's impression.

"Why did you say that the contents of that writing did not surprise you?" Sakuya then asked carefully from Vic.

"I've done my fair share of treasure hunting in my time and they're almost always 'cursed'. It's a trick to keep the tombraiders away, but it's not so fun after it turns out that the curse isn't just a bluff," Vic said with arms crossed over his chest.

"Right...," Sakuya muttered while looking at the sheet of paper in her hands. She then stood up, gathered all the artefacts and clues she and Marisa had found to a one pile and then she started to gather their weapons.

"Sakuya what are you up to?" Marisa asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"We appreciate your hospitality Vic, but we have all the required information, so me and Marisa are going to hit the road now," Sakuya said without even looking at Vic or Marisa.

"You understand that you'll need to walk, or what ever method you are planning to use, 5000 kilometers. There's no way you'll ever beat Wolf to that treasure," Vic said and laughed at Sakuya's plans.

"More the reason to leave now so we do not waste any more time. Come Marisa," Sakuya said after she had stuffed everything she thought they could need to a backpack she had taken from the corner of the room without even asking permission from Vic.

"I admire your perseverance, but I think I could offer you a realistic way to get lead on Wolf," Vic said and grinned a little.

"I am all ears," Sakuya said with indifferent tone without even looking at Vic.

"Thank you. I'd ask you to follow me," Vic said and signed Marisa and Sakuya to follow. Marisa then looked at Sakuya, but when she saw that Sakuya followed Vic's lead Marisa decided to follow her. Vic lead the girls outside. It was pitch-dark outside. The stars were shining brightly in the sky and it was almost impossible to tell where the sky began and where the desert ended while looking around oneself. Vic lead them to behind the cabin where there was a quite large carage.

"I suspect that you're planning to leave immediately. If so I'd hope you know how to pilot this," Vic said and opened the carage. Sakuya's jaw dropped when she saw that in the carage there was a small blue seaplane.

"I haven't used this beauty in a long time and I think it's high time for it to be used again. I remember when I used it when I was still in the business back in the days," Vic said and laughed a bit while walking into the carage.

"Why do you have a plane in your carage?" Sakuya asked with amazed and confused look on her face.

"Well didn't I tell you I used to be a scoundrel. Men like me always needed a quick get away. I haven't needed this beauty for years. So because you have much more pressing need for it, take it," Vic said and patted the side of the plane.

"You are joking...," Sakuya said and touched the plane carefully.

"If it's about you not knowing how to fly it, I'll teach you," Vic said and laughed a bit.

"No, I know how to fly traditional aircrafts. Wait, me? Fly? You are not coming with us? You just give us the whole aircraft?" Sakuya then asked with confused look on her face.

"Listen, I've been in a same kind of situations like you and I know the risks you're going to face and how important this is. I've retired long ago and guys like me need to know when to walk away. You heard me right, the plane is yours now," Vic said and smile gently.

"I-I do not know what to say. You do not even know us and yet you help us with everything you have," Sakuya said and looked into Vic's eyes.

"Heh, my adventures are over, so it is more than honor for me to help you with yours, so go now, save your friend and kick Wolf's ass," Vic said and laughed more.

"Thank you," Sakuya said and nodded to Vic.

"No worries. You have the coordinates and the plane has been refueled. It isn't gonna fly itself," Vic said and grinned. Sakuya just nodded, signed Marisa to follow her and climbed into the seaplane. Marisa sat to the seat next to the pilot's seat and watched as Sakuya started the engines. Rotors started to spin and Sakuya drove the plane out of the carage. She then watched out from the window and saw Vic showing thumbs up for her. Sakuya just smiled and waved back at Victor before accelerating. She drove the plane on the surface of the flat desert until she had gained enough speed and then took off. Marisa just watched through the window as the cabin disappeared into distance.

"That Vic guy, he was a great guy," Marisa said while looking through the window even though it was so dark she couldn't see anything.

"Sometimes I forget that there are people in the outside world who care more about others than themselves. It is rare...," Sakuya said with empty look on her face. Marisa just looked at Sakuya for a moment. She had nothing to respond to that. She could swear that she saw a glimmer of happiness on Sakuya's face. Marisa decided to not to ruin the moment which gave Sakuya a bit more faith in the outside world and the humans in general.

"I'll go and get some sleep," Marisa said and headed to the back of the plane where the cargo was usually held and where there were two padded seats to which she could lay down. She lied down and closed her eyes.

"I wonder how Alice is doing... or Reimu... or anyone," Marisa thought to herself before falling asleep. Even she couldn't deny that she missed Gensokyo already. Her friends and her home. She just hoped that they could find and save Sanae soon so they could return home. She didn't care if she was going to get scolded or not after returning. The adventure had been more grueling than she had thtought. It didn't take longer than minute till she fell asleep even if the rotors were roaring loudly.

In the cockpit Sakuya had same kind of feelings. She just hoped that her mistress would be okay and that she wouldn't have let her curiosity overtake her when Marisa had persuaded her and Sanae to help her.

"If I just had... *sigh I just hope for this to be over soon," Sakuya muttered to herself in slight frustration. She then took out the piece of paper that had the coordinates written to it. She then turned the steering wheel a little and let out a little frustrated sigh.

"This better be the final leg...," Sakuya groaned with determined look on her face while memorizing the coordinates towards which they were heading in the pitch-dark night. Their flight lasted the whole night and easily the next whole morning. Marisa hadn't slept properly for a long time so she didn't wake up even when the sun rose and started shining through the plane's windows. The air outisde was hot and muggy. Sakuya could see forest all around below them. She had been keeping her eye on Sanae's phone where she saw their current coordinates. Once she thought they were close enough to the coordinates Vic had measured for them she started descending closer to the ground. It was almost impossible to land on to solid ground because of the forest, so Sakuya had to aim for a river that was meandering below them. The seaplane was agile enough so it didn't take too long till she landed the plane to the surface of the river. Once she hit the surface she heard a faint thud from the back of the plane and once the plane had stopped Marisa came to the cockpit while holding her head. She had fallen from the padded seat while sleeping when the plane had slowed down on the surface of the river.

"Ow, ow, ow! You could have at least woke me up before landing," Marisa bridled with sleepy look on her face. Sakuya didn't even look at Marisa and instead was steering the plane towards the shore, so they wouldn't have to swim. Marisa then happened to look outside and saw the jungle all around them.

"Looks adventurous at least," Marisa muttered while eying the envirioment she could see through the window of the cockpit.

"How long walk?" Marisa then asked and referred to the distance they would need to walk on foot to reach the exact coordinates the star map had given to them.

"About one or two kilometers. It is going to be tiring walk in this weather," Sakuya responded and shut the engines of the plane and stood up from her seat. She then walked to the back of the plane and started sorting their stuff.

"Take the dagger with you. I am almost certain that we will need it," Sakuya said while loading her weapon and taking a large piece of camouflage fabric that had been folded to a compact packing. Marisa did as Sakuya said and took all the things she thought she would need and the dagger. She then followed Sakuya outside. Marisa looked for a moment how Sakuya started to cover the plane with the fabric.

"Help me out a little, would you. In case Wolf is fast and gets here before we leave we might want to hide our get away," Sakuya said while throwing the fabric over the plane. Marisa then walked to the other side of the plane and made sure that the fabric covered the plane's every part. Once they were ready Sakuya turned towards the jungle and looked at Sanae's phone which had the coordinates displayed on its screen.

"Keep your eyes open. The thing we are looking for could really well be just another hole in the ground like back in Finland. Also please be careful, I do not want see you stepping on and being killed by snake or falling into quicksand," Sakuya warned Marisa with serious tone and look on her face.

"I think I've faced quite enough threats now that I can look after myself in some thick forest," Marisa said with indifferent tone and swiped the air with her hand before she started walking into the jungle. However after taking just two steps she stumbled to a root that was sticking out from the ground. She fell to her stomach, but she kept her face from hitting the ground by hitting the ground with her arms first.

"I wan't paying attention! And besides I'm still sleepy," Marisa yelled before Sakuya could taunt her, but soon after she happened to look down and saw on top of what she had been about to fall. Just few centimeters away from her throat was a sharp pointy branch sticking out from the ground. She then quickly stood up, shook some dust off from her clothes and looked at Sakuya. She didn't look like she had been about to taunt her after Marisa had accidentally almost impailed her throat.

"*Sigh Just follow me and keep up," Sakuya said after Marisa had recovered from that little shock her. Marisa then just nodded and walked after Sakuya with a bit embarrased look on her face.

They walked into the jungle to the direction of the coordinates where the whatever-they-were-looking-for was. At first Marisa had thought that since it was going to be just one or two kilometers it wouldn't take them too long to find something, but she had underestimated the jungle. The terrain was much more harsh than she had anticipated. They needed to cross quite large ravines and rivers and climb and decend hills all the time. But even though their journey was slow and tiring the jungle around them was breathtakingly beautiful. It wasn't the kind of green Marisa had become used to in Gensokyo, but instead it was GREEN to its very core meaning. There also were lots and lots of sounds all around them most of them being birds and insects, but from time to time she heard some strange noises that she thought to be the sound of either monkeys or the sound of some wild cat.

"Aren't you a little worried that we might come across some wild animals?" Marisa then asked nervously. Even though she was from Gensokyo and hadn't seen many outside world wild animals she still was familiar with beasts like tigers and wolves. The encounter she had had with Kasen's tiger where almost lost her arm back in Gensokyo was still in her fresh memory.

"Not really. Usually wild animals run away when they hear or smell humans. That is unless you force them into a corner, then they become threat. Otherwise if there is something coming at you in places like this they are probably something else than animals," Sakuya responded and slashed a bunch of leaves from in front of her with her knife.

"What's that supposed to mean? Something else than animal?" Marisa asked with confused look on her face. Sakuya then turned towards Marisa, pointed at her with her finger and poked her to her forehead.

"Humans are really the only threat you can face in the jungle if you are careful and manage to avoid all the poisonous plants, spiders, snakes and enviriomental threats like quicksand and raging rivers. Wild animals are the least of your worries, I assure you," Sakuya said and continued her walk through the jungle and Marisa followed her.

"I get what you mean, but I cannot help it. I feel like we're being watched," Marisa said while scanning the thick jungle around herself. Even though it was midday it was still kinda dim at the forest floor. Marisa then just walked after Sakuya while still looking all around herself, but while doing so she accidentally bumped into Sakuya who had stopped for some reason.

"Ouch, why did you stop?" Marisa then asked and rubbed her forehead. Sakuya was just looking at Sanae's phone in her hands.

"According to the coordinates we are right on top of the mark," Sakuya said, lowered her hand and looked around herself before continuing, "So why is there nothing here?"

"Maybe we're still a little bit off?" Marisa asked with a bit worried and confused look on her face. She didn't like the idea that they had accidentally come to a wrong place.

"No this is the place, I am certain of that," Sakuya said and showed the phone to Marisa to prove that the coordinates were correct.

"Well as I said, it could really well be some hidden cavern or something like that. Uhmmm, let's split up and see what we can find. This just has to be the place," Sakuya said with abit nervous tone and look on her face. Marisa just nodded and turned away from Sakuya to go search the surrounding area.

"I really hope for Sanae's sake that Sakuya didn't mess up the coordinates," Marisa thought to herself. She knew that Sakuya really wasn't a person who would do mistakes like that, but there was always a possibility. Marisa made sure not to stray too far away from Sakuya because in the jungle even if you shout you cannot be heard from pretty far away, because trees and leaves absorb all the vibration from the air. She then came across a fairly large thicket through which she could see some more light coming.

"Great, maybe there's an open area where I could scout thing out," Marisa though to herself while squeezing through leaves and branches. After she finally got through she had only one microsecond to grab one of the branches from that thicket so she wouldn't have fallen of a cliff.

"Holy crap!" Marisa yelled when she realized that there had been a cliff behind that thicket which explained the light coming through it. Marisa sighed for relief when she had recovered from her shock, but then she happened to look down and saw what the cliff was overlooking.

"Well would you look at that...," Marisa said with amazed look on her face when she saw that below the cliff in the forest there was a whole group of extremely old looking temples and other structures. She then bursted out a triumphant laughter.

"SAKUYA! COME TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!" Marisa yelled to Sakuya's direction to inform her about her discovery. Soon after Marisa heard some rustling from behind her and soon Sakuya appeared from the thicket. Marisa stopped Sakuya from walking too far so she wouldn't fall from the cliff like Marisa herself had almost done.

"Well, what do you say?" Marisa said with complacent tone and look on her face while pointing at the temples below them.

"Marisa, you must truly be the luckiest unlucky person on earth," Sakuya said with amazed look on her face. At first she wasn't going to believe what she saw, but soon after when she realized that she wasn't hallucinating due the heat a wide smile grew to her face.

"What do you say, shall we check that thing out?" Marisa asked playfully and tucked Sakuya to her shoulder. Sakuya then kneeled down to see how they were going to get down that about fifty meters tall vertical stone wall.

"There are some lianas here, we can use them to get down," Sakuya said and started descending carefully. Marisa watched as Sakuya kept palpating the lianas.

"They will hold. Come," Sakuya then said and started descending carefully. Marisa followed her lead. The lianas were slimy, but sticky enough that their grip held while descending. It took them few minutes to get to the bottom and as soon as they did they realized that the ground was covered in old and mossy cobblestone. Sakuya kneeled down and touched the cobblestones.

"We are definitely on the right track," Sakuya said after inspecting the stones and was certain that they were man made. She then stood up and they started walking towards the mossy constructs among the trees and other plants. They looked around themselves. They soon started to realize why this ancient place hadn't been discovered earlier. The trees blocked the sunlight reaching the bottom layer of the forest as well as in the other parts of the jungle. If you were to look from directly above the temples you could only see the trees, but when looked from the cliff the temples became visible. They walked deeper into the cluster of temples looking around themselves with amazed looks on their faces. It was something like out from pure fantasy. Lianas wrapping themselves around the stone buildings and trees growing out from them.

"So... Now we have to get in, right?" Marisa asked and dag the dagger out from her pocket.

"Yep, and what do you bet that that is where we need to take the dagger," Sakuya said and pointed at the tallest of the temples that was in the middle of them all. Marisa's grin widened as she saw what Sakuya was pointing at. She started joging towards the temple and up the mossy stairs that led towards the peak of the structure. Sakuya followed her to the top where they were greeted by a massive stone wall. The stairs ended there, but the temple was much more taller than the stairs which led them into thinking that the wall was a door or there was a door somewhere in the wall. Marisa looked at the carved wall for a moment with wide smile on her face.

"Well what do you make of that?" Marisa said and turned towards Sakuya. Sakuya walked a bit closer to the wall and started inspecting it. She knocked it twice and listened.

"It is hollow. No we need to get inside, and that is where I believe the dagger comes in," Sakuya said and pointed at the ancient weapon in Marisa's hands.

"But how?" Marisa asked and looked at the dagger and then around herself. Sakuya then backed away from the wall and looked at it for a moment. She stood beside Marisa when she happened to look at the ground.

"Think I found the answer," Sakuya said while looking at the platform they were standing on. Marisa then looked at the stony ground and saw that the on the platform there was a giant carving of Hannunvaakuna and in the middle of it there was a tiny hole just about the size of the blade of that dagger.

"Go ahead, let's see what we can find inside," Sakuya said and smiled gently. Marisa then nodded and walked up to the hole in the ground. She kneeled before it and looked at the dagger in her hands. She then took a deep breath and pushed the blade of the dagger into the hole and waited for a few seconds. She then looked at the dagger and the wall with confused look on her face when nothing happened.

"Try... taking it out," Sakuya said while looking at confused Marisa. Marisa just nodded and pulled the dagger out. Then immediately she heard and felt some crumbling from below. She backed away immediately while putting the dagger back into her pocket.

"Wow," Marisa uttered with amazed tone and look on her face while looking how the right side of the wall in front of them slided away slowly and then stopped after the opening in the wall was about two meters wide. The machinery however still kept crumbling underneath their feet.

"Looks like we are lucky that it opened even this much," Sakuya said and sighed for relief. It seemed that the door mechanism had been worn down by the ages and it lasted only barely long enough for the right side of the wall to open.

"Hahhaa, let's take a look," Marisa enthused and was just about head on inside, but Sakuya grabbed her from her shoulder and stopped her.

"Wait a second," Sakuya said with suspicious look on her face. When the stone wall had opened something fell from the shadows to the dim sunlight. Sakuya walked closer to see what it was that was currently laying on the stone. Sakuya walked up to the strange thing and kneeled before it. It was a skeleton and by the looks of it it was atleast 900 years old.

"Great, more spooky scary skeletons, like back in that cavern under Saana," Marisa said with a bit disqusted look on her face. Sakuya however didn't react and kept inspecting the skeleton on the ground.

"What's so interesting about that one?" Marisa then asked with curious look on her face.

"This one faced a violent death. Look, the bones are badly damaged," Sakuya said and pointed at the broken bones. Sakuya then stood up and turned on the light on Sanae's phone and pointed it into the temple.

"Let's be careful in there," Sakuya said with serious look on her face. Marisa sensed that Sakuya was nervous, which made her nervous too. She gulped before following sakuya into the dark temple. They however didn't get too far, before Sakuya found something interesting again. It was another skeleton leaning against the left side of that stone wall which had not opened like the right side did.

"Look at that one," Sakuya said and pointed the flashlight towards the skeleton.

"What about him?" Marisa asked nervously as Sakuya walked closer and kneeled before it.

"The postion in which he died... He is leaning his face towards the door, not away, but towards. In his dying moment, he was not trying to get into the temple or battle anyone, he was trying to get out," Sakuya said and stood up. She then pointed the flashlight deeper into the dark temple and they saw more skeletons lying on their stomachs on the ground and all of their skull were pointed at the door.

"Things just went from zero to one hundred really freaking quick. What do you think happened to them?" Marisa asked with a bit frightened tone and look on her face.

"Killed... by someone or something. Either way they were running away from it and it seems that the danger was so great that they had to be shut into the temple. They locked the door before they, who ever they might have been, got out," Sakuya said with clearly nervous look on her face.

"And now we're here...," Marisa continued with quivering tone.

"Yeah, we are, and we have a job to do. But let's be careful. We cannot possibly know what we will find," Sakuya said and started walking deeper into the temple. Marisa followed her while looking franticly around herself. Something told her that things weren't as they should be. They kept heading deeper into the temple and it seemed that the pathway was taking them downwards all the time. Without Sanae's phone they could never see in front of themselves in that complete darkness. They also noticed that there were no skeletons anywhere to be seen after the entrance. They didn't know if that was good or bad sign but they kept going.

Their walk was surprisingly long. After twenty minutes Marisa was beginning to think that they were going in circles, but Sakuya just told her to stay calm. She just kept following Sakuya, but suddenly she felt something touching her shoulder and neck.

"Gah!" Marisa screamed when she felt that faint touch. Sakuya immediately turned towards her and pointed the flaslight at her. Marisa then took a quick look at what had touched, but was relieved to find just a spider sitting on her shoulder.

"Phew, you scared me there little fella. What are you doing there?" Marisa asked and took the spider to her hand. The spider didn't seem to be scared and just watched Marisa as Marisa held it on top of her palm.

"I expected you to scream even more after seeing that," Sakuya said with a bit amused and surprised look on her face.

"Why would I? In the end as a witch spiders are more than familiar to me," Marisa said and put the spider back on top of her shoulder.

"Just... be careful with it. I do not know if it is poisonous," Sakuya warned Marisa before continuing their walk deeper into the temple.

"Don't worry, I used to have a pet spider myself when I was younger. It was a black widow spider and it was named Lulu," Marisa said and smiled a bit while looking at the fairly big spider sitting on her shoulder.

"Why on earth would you have a second most venomous spider in the world as a pet?" Sakuya asked with confused look on her face.

"For magical research of course. I used the poison of my spider for many different purposes. It was also fun looking after a pet," Marisa said and grinned.

"I do not even want to know for what purposes," Sakuya said with a bit amused tone and look on her face as they walked deeper and deeper into the temple. Their walk lasted for five minutes until they finally came across a big stone door. They walked closer to it and inspected it carefully.

"Seems like dead end if we do not get through this," Sakuya said while shedding some light towards the door.

"Pretty big door to keep people out," Marisa said with impressed look on her face. The carvings on the wall were amazing and disturbing at the same time. The carvings mostly contained skulls and human body parts. There was also another Hannunvaakuna carved to it.

"Or to keep something in. Help me push this," Sakuya said and leaned against the right side of the door while Marisa handled the left side. The door was as heavy as they had expected, but together they managed to force it open. Behind the door there was a big dark space. After recovering her balance Sakuya tried to point the light to the other side of the room, but it was so far away that the light didn't get that far.

"This place is awfully big for a treasure chamber," Marisa said with nervous tone and look on her face.

"You are absolutely right and did you notice that we did not encounter any skeletons besides the ones we saw at the entrance?" Sakuya asked while shedding some light to the ground to see in what kind of room they were in. The floor was stone like back in that tunnel they had walked through, but she could not see the roof or the walls.

"Sakuya, are we supposed to be here?" Marisa asked nervously while looking around herself in complete darkness.

"I surely do not know, but we still need to find out if the Sampo is truly here," Sakuya said and started walking towards the darkness and Marisa quickly followed her. They walked only about twenty seconds until Marisa felt a faint movement on her shoulder again. She turned her head and looked how the spider that had been sitting on her shoulder was skittering away. It run down her leg and into the darkness back to the direction of the door.

"What's the big hurry little fella?" Marisa asked with confused look on her face, but the spider was gone already.

"It knows something that we do not," Sakuya said and kept on walking, but soon spotted something on the ground. It was some tiny white lump of fur, or at least that's what it looked like. Sakuya kneeled closer and Marisa did the same. When they took a closer look it seemed to be another spider, but this one was long dead and was covered with some fungus.

"Ew, what is that?" Marisa asked with disqusted look on her face.

"I have heard of these. It is a parasitic fungus that affects insects and other invertebrate creatures. This one seems to affect spiders, so no wonder why your friend ran away. If it were to get too close to this it would be infected too," Sakuya said and stood up. Marisa too stood up and they looked around themselves.

"There's nothing here," Marisa then said with disappointed tone after Sakuya had once again shedded some light around them.

"You know how old this is getting?" Sakuya bridled with frustrated look on her face and kicked one stone from the ground to the darkness. She was just about to turn back towards the door, but then she heard a faint cracking from the direction to which the stone had flewn. She and Marisa turned towards the sound. It didn't sound like a stone cracking, but instead something much more fragile. They then started walking to the direction where the sound had come. They walked for a while until they saw something laying on the ground and the stone next to it. It was a corpse, but this one wasn't as old as the ones back at the entrance.

"Dear god... another one?" Marisa said with disgusted look on her face and tried to keep herself from vomiting.

"Seems like it. Let's hope we have better luck at getting out of here," Sakuya said and flipped the body over to see its face and what kind of clothes it was wearing for some possible clues for who it might have been.

"Gah, it stinks. Our friend here it at least 70 years old. Maybe more," Sakuya said while shaking some dust off from the corpse's clothes.

"Wait a second...," Sakuya then said after looking at the clothes more carefully.

"What is it?" Marisa asked with curious and still with a little disgusted look on her face.

"Eisen Lachs? What the...?" Sakuya muttered out loud while swiping some dust off from the badge attached to the chest of the corpse. She then quickly reached for the left arm of the corpse and tore a piece of red cloth out of it and then looked at it. On a white backround there was a black swastika.

"Sakuya, what's wrong?" Marisa asked with worried tone and look on her face as she watched how Sakuya's expression turned into frustration.

"You gotta be shitting me!" Sakuya yelled and then reached into the pockets of that corpse pulling out a handful of those same coins that they had found under Saana. She looked at them for a moment and then threw them away in rage.

"Sakuya tell me, what's wrong!?" Marisa then yelled at Sakuya in confusion.

"We are once again almost eighty years late for this party! God fucking damnit! My deceased countrymen have cleaned this place a long time ago," Sakuya yelled and punched the ground in rage.

"S-so we're off again to another place?" Marisa asked carefully only to be shouted at by Sakuya, "I am so tired to all this crap!"

"J-just try to relax. Think about Sanae, we cannot give up here," Marisa tried to calm Sakuya down but didn't succeed.

"I do not mean that. I wont abandon her, do not worry about that. It is just that I was aware of the place where Sampo currently is without even knowing it," Sakuya groaned with frustrated look on her face.

"What are you saying?" Marisa asked with even more confused look on her face.

"Okay, just bear with me. You remember how we talked with Sanae back in Finland how I used to be a part of the SS forces. Well just one week before I entered Remilia's service we had a report from Eisen Lachs which is a well hidden submarine base at Galapagos islands. In the report they told that they had found some unbeliveably valuable object from the jungles of Amazon. Back then I had no idea or interest to know what the treasure was, but now the timing and place matches perfectly to this place. They found Sampo. They found... with sheer luck," Sakuya uttered with defeated look on her face.

"S-so the Sampo is there in that base?" Marisa asked carefully.

"I do not know. During my last week at the service of the SS forces that was the only report we heard. Nothing after that during the whole week. What happened after I started to serve Remilia I am uncertain," Sakuya explained while looking at the corpse.

"Do we have any other choice than that base?" Marisa asked carefully.

"Probably not. I truly hope that Sampo would still be in Eisen Lachs. Luckily I know exactly how to find the base. Let's go," Sakuya said after taking one final glare at the corpsa at her feet. They then stood up and looked around themselves again.

"If the main door was shut before we got here and we have the dagger, out friend here must have gotten in with some other means. Look around, let's see if we can find a quicker way out," Sakuya said while shedding light from Sanae's phone around themselves. Sakuya squinted her eyes and managed to saw a wall behind the corpse once she pointed her flashlight to that direction. She signed to Marisa to follow her as she went to take a better look at the wall.

"I can feel a draft over here," Sakuya said while touching the walls with her hands. She then took an even better look at the wall and realized that it wasn't just a wall. It was an avalanche of rocks and mud. Or at least it had once been one. She then shed some light towards the wall to see if they could get through it somehow. She then happened to look at the ground just next to the wall and saw a few bars of old dynamite. Sakuya then picked one up and inspected it.

"Seems like these have survived without getting wet. If we are lucky we can use these to reopen our little path here," Sakuya said while searching something from the ground.

"What are you looking for?" Marisa asked while looking at Sakuya.

"Flint of course. I cannot come up with anything else to light this thing with," Sakuya responded and took one stone from the ground and inspected it. Marisa helped her to find flint and soon enough they found two stones. Sakuya then gathered every dynamite bar she could find and placed them so that they would blow up the rocks and earth blocking their way. After doing that she signed Marisa to back away and lay low. She then hit the stones together few times until the spark created from them lit the fuse. After that she dropped the stones and dashed away from the wall and covered her head. She and Marisa layed on the ground for few seconds until the faint hissing sound from behind them fell silent and was soon followed by a deafening explosion. Marisa felt how pieces of stone and loads of dust fell on top of her. Once the stones stopped falling on top of them and the dust had cleared they finally dared to stand stand up. They looked at the spot on the wall where the dynamite had blown up. There was a nice wide tunnel leading through the wall of the temple. The light blinded them for a moment, but they got used to it pretty quickly.

"Let's not waste anymore time. We will head back to the plane and head immediately towards the Galabagos islands," Sakuya said with determined look on her face while covering her eyes with her arm. Marisa very well knew this so she didn't bother to respond. She just quitely followed Sakuya through the dusty tunnel. It didn't seem too safe, but at least it didn't collapse on top of the. Once they got out from the temple Marisa stretched her arms a bit and inhaled the fresh air.

"I've had enough of these dank tombs. Let's get go-" Marisa said but her sentence was cut short when she thought she heard more noises. This time those weren't made by an animal that was certain.

"Sakuya did you hear that?" Marisa asked from Sakuya who was busy looking up to the sky where some storm clouds could be seen gather on top of them.

"Huh?" Sakuya asked and listened for a moment.

"The sound of... engines...?" Sakuya muttered after listening for a while. It didn't take her long to realise why they heard the sounds.

"Quick, we must get out of here! I really should have seen this coming. In the end they have the original star map," Sakuya whispered to Marisa.

"But they don't have the dagger, we should still have the upper hand," Marisa responded and glanced at the dagger that she pulled out from her pocket.

"Do you not remember that the main door to the temple is wide open and there is a path to the inner chamber just behind us," Sakuya responded and looked around herself to see if there would be a quick way to get back to their plane, but there wasn't. They would have to climb back on top of that cliff to get back, and to do that they would need to stay unseen. They could hear the sound of the engines really clearly, but didn't see any of Wolf's men yet.

"Uhhh... Quick let's try to get as close to that cliff as we can before the Wolf's men arrive," Sakuya said and they started rushing towards the cliff, but unluckily that was also the direction from which the sound of the engines was coming. It didn't take long until the first jeep popped out from the jungle. Luckily it seemed that they had just driven along the cliff and hadn't been on top of it, so it was highly unlikely that Wolf's men had spotted their plane. However Sakuya and Marisa couldn't make any more progress anymore because more and more Wolf's vehicles started appearing from the jungle and to reach the cliff they would have needed to go through the convoy which they didn't want to do. Instead of attacking they decided to wait for a right moment to slip past them unnoticed. Rest of Wolf's convoy arrived shortly after, but unfortunately they decided to park themselves just in front of the cliff which made it even harder for Sakuya and Marisa to climb back up. They were currently hiding in a thicket near the edge of the group of temples. They knew that if they wanted to saty ahead of Wolf they couldn't afford to fight, so they needed to be careful.

"I've had enough of these assholes," Marisa groaned while they were scouting the situation and waiting for opportunity to slip past them.

"Tell me about it...," Sakuya muttered while pulling out her binoculars.

"You still have that?" Marisa asked after seeing Sakuya take her binoculars to take a better look at the situation.

"Nah, lost the original ones long ago. There was an extra pair in that plane," Sakuya said while looking through the binoculars. She looked how the soldiers unloaded the trucks and jeeps full of weapons and supplies. Finally she saw Wolf stepping out from one of the trucks.

"There he is. Once they have gone inside the temple we will have a ch-" Sakuya started but she stopped once she saw something that got her sigh for a relief, but also made their job a lot more harder. She saw how Wolf pulled Sanae out from the truck together with him and while doing so was holding Marisa's Hakkero in his other hand.

"Thank the god, she is alive. Okay change of plans, we have a chance to save Sanae and your Hakkero here and now," Sakuya said and lowered her binoculars from her face. She then pointed at Sanae and Wolf to make sure that Marisa saw them too. Marisa just nodded to indicate that she saw them.

"I really shouldn't think this way, but I was hoping to at least see the treasure, but oh well," Marisa thought to herself, but didn't say it out loud for it would have just resulted in getting slapped by Sakuya.

They just watched for a moment to see what was going to happen next. They didn't hear what any of them were saying because they were too far away, but Sakuya could clearly see Wolf yelling at Sanae and Sanae yelling at Wolf as he, Sanae and few soldiers headed towards the main temple where Sakuya and Marisa had just been. But before they started climbing up the stairs towards the entrance Wolf gave the Hakkero to one of his soldiers, said something to him and after that the soldiers started to scatter around the area.

"Okay, this may be hard, but now when Wolf, Sanae and few of his men have gone into the temple we might at least have a chance to steal back your Hakkero," Sakuya whispered and started to move slowly while crouching and being hidden from the soldiers' view by the vegetation. As the soldiers started to scatter it became harder and harder to stay hidden, but Sakuya kept on going and tried to find a way to get to Marisa's Hakkero while Marisa herself was following Sakuya. Sakuya then signed marisa to stop as she sneaked closer to one of the soldiers who was just standing there on guard a little bit away from the rest. Sakuya took one of her knives grab the soldier from behind, covered his mouth and slit his throat. Sakuya then dragged the soldier out from the sight and returned to Marisa.

"I am gonna dispose those that I can. After that we will think about our next move," Sakuya said while signing Marisa to stay put. Marisa just nodded quietly and just watched how Sakuya disappeared into the vegetation. Marisa just sat there covered by leaves until she happened to see that the soldier Sakuya had just dragged into a hiding spot had a sniper rifle on its back. Marisa took it and inspected it for a moment. It didn't take her long to notice that the scope of the rifle worked almost the same way as a telescope. She then started looking through the scope looking for Sakuya to see what she was up to. It didn't take her long to finally find her. She was dashing rapidly through the vegetation and everytime Marisa lost her, a falling soldier gave away her position again. Sakuya was getting rid of the soldiers that were far enough from the main group so she could kill them without being noticed. However there were so many soldiers that every single one Sakuya had already killed would parallel only a drop in a bucket.

Marisa kept watching Sakuya's every move as well as she could, but after killing about twelve soldiers Sakuya saw that the rest weren't moving from their positions from guarding the Hakkero. After seeing that Sakuya started returning to Marisa. Marisa then layed the weapon down and just waited there for Sakuya's return. It didn't take her too long to return even if there still were loads and loads of soldiers all over the place.

"I do not like these odds. Even if I killed many, there are still loads of them," Sakuya said after appearing from the thicket next to Marisa.

"So got a plan B?" Marisa asked while putting down the sniper rifle.

"Where did you find that?" Sakuya asked after she saw Marisa's rifle.

"From that guy you killed first and dragged here. It was on his back. I watched you through that scope," Marisa explained and shrugged her shoulders. Sakuya then picked up the rifle and inspected it for a moment. She then looked at the soldier who had Marisa's Hakkero and few other soldiers accompanying him.

"How good you were at pickpocketing again Marisa?" Sakuya asked with allusive grin on her face.

"What are you getting at here?" Marisa asked and looked at Sakuya with a bit confused look on her face.

"I mean that if you could sneak closer to them and try to snatch it from that soldier I can cover you from here," Sakuya said and pointed at the barrel of the rifle which happened to have a silencer on its tip.

"Couldn't you just stop the time, walk down there and take it without any risks?" Marisa asked and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Not possible. If that soldier were to keep it in his hand or somewhere in plain sight I could, but it is in his pocket. Once I freeze time it is impossible for me to stick my hand into for example pockets of other people since the fabric becomes like concrete. A loose objects I can move around, but with limits," Sakuya explained and sighed. Marisa then glanced at the soldiers in the distance gulped and looked back at Sakuya.

"You sure about this?" Marisa asked with nervous look on her face.

"As sure as I can be. I will take care of the soldiers that I can, just make sure you keep moving and stay out of sight," Sakuya responded with self confident tone and nodded to Marisa.

"Okay then...," Marisa said with nervous tone and look on her face before turning towards the soldiers near the temples. She then sighed deeply and disappeared into the thicket that had been surrounding them. Sakuya then took aim and started to look for targets. She couldn't just start shooting anybody. Even though she had a silnecer if she were to shoot someone standing on an open area they would lose their element of surprise. She just watched how Marisa approached the soldiers. She kept her eye on one of the soldiers who was slowly walking to Marisa's direction. Once he was far enough from the other she took one precise shot and the soldier fell to the tall grass where the body wouldn't be noticed. Marisa continued sneaking closer and closer, but once she reached the edge of the vegetation she stopped. There was twenty meters of ground covered in cobblestone which didn't provide any kind of hiding spot. Marisa was clueless about what she should do now, so she turned around and returned to that soldier Sakuya had shot. Marisa shearched his body to see if there would be anything useful. She then pulled out a fist size metal ball from the soldier's belt and looked at it. She then turned towards Sakuya's position, lifted her hand a little, pointed at the metal ball and shrugged her shoulders to indicate that she didn't know what it was. She knew that Sakuya could see her. Sakuya then layed down the sniper rifle, lifted her hands a little so Marisa could see them and made a gestures showing how to use the grenade. Sakuya signed that it was an explosive and that Marisa should think carefully before using it. Marisa then looked at the grenade in her hand again and attached it to her belt. She then returned to the edge of the vegetation to plan what to do next. She kept on scanning the situation for a minute, but she just couldn't come up with any plan to proceed further. She then turned towards Sakuya and made some gestures with her hands. She signed to her that she was going to throw the grenade and after that Sakuya should shoot the soldier with the Hakkero and the ones surrounding him. Marisa couldn't see if Sakuya had understood her plan, but she just had to believe.

"Sakuya better make sure she keeps her end of the plan," Marisa thought to herself, took a deep breath and pulled the pin from the grenade like Sakuya had shown. She then threw the grenade as far as she could towards one of the trucks and immediately when she did she saw how with three accurate shots the soldiers fell to the ground. If the grenade hadn't exploded at the same exact time the other soldiers would have noticed the other three falling to the ground.

"ENEMY! BE ON YOUR GUARD!" One of the soldiers shouted. Sakuya was observing the situation fom her position and soon realised that she would need to attrackt the soldiers' attention if Marisa wanted to get her hands on to the Hakkero.

"Well then, let's dance boys," Sakuya thought to herself and took couple of more shots towards the soldiers.

"Enemy sniper!" One of the soldiers yelled and everyone of them focused their fire on to Sakuya's location, but she was already gone. Meanwhile Marisa dashed out from her hiding spot towards the body of a soldier who had her Hakkero. The other troops were so busy shooting at Sakuya that they hadn't noticed that Sakuya had shot few of them already. Marisa searched through the body as quickly as she could and finally she found what she was looking for.

"Thank the gods, I've missed you so much," Marisa thought to herself after pulling her Hakkero out from the pocket of that corpse. But it was at that exact moment when one of the soldiers noticed Marisa's presence.

"There are two of them!" The soldier yelled and opened his fire at Marisa. Yelped and dashed behind a stone block that had fallen off from the nearby temple ages ago. While doing so she accidentally dropped the Hakkero next to the block just barely out from her reach. She tried to reach for it, but the troops were concentrating their fire at Marisa's location.

"Damn, I'd really appreciate some help over here, Sakuya," Marisa muttered to herself while leaning against the stone block.

Meanwhile Sakuya was doing all she could to take out as many soldiers as possible, but she couldn't draw everyone's attention to her so she really couldn't help Marisa. She was busy trying to dodge all the bullets shot at her, so she really didn't have too much time to respond to the fire either. She was just trying to find a new position where to shoot when a weird rumbling sound caught her attention. It sounded like an engine roaring, but it wasn't a truck that was certain.

"What the...?" Sakuya muttered and looked at the direction where the sound came from and it didn't take even a two seconds till she realised what it was. From the jungle came an actual tank pushing over the trees while approaching.

"No freaking way...," Sakuya muttered out loud and her jaw dropped. She then quickly snapped herself back to reality and understood what the tank was after.

"MARISA! MOOOOVE!" Sakuya shouted from the bottom of her lungs as she watched how the tank's cannon moved towards Marisa. Marisa looked at Sakuya with confused look on her face and peeked from behind the block and it was then when Marisa realized what Sakuya had meant. Marisa had never seen a tank, but her instincts told her that she should run. She took a deep breath and dashed out from her cover. She could feel the draft of the bullets as they missed her body by just couple centimeters. She rolled over the cobblestone and while doing so grabbed the Hakkero. She was just barely quick enough because the tank shot at the stone block just after Marisa had dashed away from it. The shockwave sent Marisa flying into the vegetation which made it sure that the soldiers lost their visual to her. Sakuya had been just looking the scene from her location unable to help Marisa. She just hoped that Marisa had survived the blast. But now she had no time to worry about that for the tank had now turned its attention at her. Sakuya threw the rifle away for it would just slow her down and started running so the tank wouldn't hit her. The tank managed to shoot twice before Sakuya dashed down and out of sight. The soldiers had now lost their track of Marisa and Sakuya. The tank stood still while the soldiers spread out to search for them. This gave Sakuya enough time to catch her breath. Once she had managed to get her heart beat down she started crawling on the ground for a better spot to scout things out. It had become awfully quiet now when the air wasn't filled with projectiles.

"What the hell happened here!?" Sakuya suddenly heard being yelled from the direction of the temple. It didn't take more than two seconds for her to recognize Wolf's voice. He had heard the gun fight to the temple had come back to see what was going on.

"It were those two women. Got us completely by surprise," One of the soldiers reported to Wolf. Wolf just groaned in anger.

"I really should have taken care of them when I had a chance," Wolf shouted. Sakuya saw from between the leaves how he grabbed Sanae and pulled a gun on her. He then looked around herself and shouted, "One last chance to come out!" Sakuya's heart skipped a beat when she saw Sanae being held at gun point, but she knew that giving away her location would just end in the deaths of all three of them. However Sakuya was uncertain if Marisa was still alive or not. Trying not to think about this she kept crawling through the vegetation. But while doing so she suddenly heard some rustling just from in front of her. At first she thought it was going to be some wild animal, but she was surprised and relieved at the same time once she saw Marisa's head appearing from under the leaves.

"*Phew So you are alive. I though you were dead for certain," Sakuya said with relieved tone and look on her face.

"I could say the same about you. Oww, my ears are still ringing from that blast. But what are we gonna do now? He has threatened to kill Sanae," Marisa said with nervous tone and peeked over her shoulder and saw from between the leaves how Wolf was still holding Sanae in his grip.

"He wont kill her trust me. He would lose his negotiation advantage. Now what we need to do is to get out from here alive," Sakuya said with assertive look on her face.

"Easier said than done. That... thing is blocking our way," Marisa said while pointing at the tank the barrel of which was turning right and left ominously. Like it was searching for them which it most likely was.

"I never would have guessed that Wolf would be so damn desperate to bring a damn tank for just in case. But either way we need some more firepower to take that thing out. Like... uhmmm... explosives or RPG," Sakuya said while trying to come up with an idea to bring that tank down. Marisa looked at Sakuya for a moment and then pulled something out from her pocket.

"Don't worry, I got you covered," Marisa while holding her Hakkero in her hands and grinning.

"Do not even think about that. That thing drains your spirit since there are not any magical powers to be used," Sakuya said with strict tone.

"What other choices do we have. I use this and we get the heck out of here," Marisa said and stared into Sakuya's eyes. At first it seemed that Sakuya was about to refuse, but then she just sighed and nodded.

"Alright, but we need to move to a proper position. You go as near as you can to that cliff so you can start climbing immediately once the tank is down. We cannot afford to lose any time or we are dead. I will head to another spot and distract them to give you enough time to charge your spark," Sakuya said and took her pistol from her belt. Marisa then just flipped her Hakkero in her hand once and grinned.

"Okay, let's do this," Marisa said and started crawling towards the cliff. Sakuya headed for her own direction. She knew that once the tank would be destroyed she could just freeze the time and follow Marisa, but she was worried that Marisa wouldn't climb quickly enough. She couldn't just pick Marisa up while the time was frozen and carry her to the top. She just had to trust that Marisa would get to the top quickly enough. Marisa on the other hand wasn't worried. She was just eager to 'demonstrate' to Wolf what that small box was capable of. She had siddled to behind of the tank already and was currently just watching at the vegetation in the distance to see when Sakuya were to give her a signal to fire.

"Any time now...," Marisa muttered to herself with a bit nervous tone, but it really didn't take long until she saw Sakuya jumping out from a bush on the opposite side of the area where the soldiers were occupied. She let out a piercing war cry as she started to shoot at the soldiers who immediately opened their fire at her. Wolf too just looked at her with amused look on his face, but none of them realized how Marisa too stood up from the bushes behind them. Or so she thought. The tank was still searching for Marisa and as soon as sakuya jumped out from her hiding spot the barrel of the tank turned 180 degrees towards Marisa. The pilot had been waiting for ambush. Marisa's heart skipped a beat once she realized that she stared into the black barrel of the tank. She however gathered herself because she knew what she had to do.

"Masteeer...," Marisa started, but her spell was cut short when the tank fired its cannon. Marisa's eyes widened when she felt the draft of the artillery round missing her face with just mere half a meter. It was like the time had frozen for her, but she shook herself free from her shock and got back to firing her spell before the tank could correct its aim and shoot again.

"Spaaaaark!" Marisa yelled from the bottom of her lungs followed by a massive beam igniting from the box. It immediately blinded every soldier including Wolf as they weren't prepared for anything like that. The roaring of Marisa's beam covered every other noise that could be heard including the tank exploading, the screams of the soldires who had been caught in the middel of the spell and the ground exploding and burning as the beam destroyed everything on its path. She kept her beam going for about thirty seconds until it finally wore off. The beams roaring was so deafening that it ringed in Marisa's ears for a moment. She hadn't used her Master Spark in a while. But when her spell finally wore off she realized what it had done. The spot to where the beam had hit was completely destroyed. All its surroundings were burning and in the middle of it was a burning exploaded tank. There were also burnt corpses of those soldiers who had been caught in the beam and those who had just stood too close to it were burning alive, running and screaming for their life. Marisa couldn't believe her eyes. Her spell had never before done so much damage to anybody. She couldn't understand why this had happened. However her shock was cut short by Sakuya appearing next to her and pulling her from her shoulder.

"Now is our only chance, let's go," Sakuya yelled at Marisa who almost seemed to be in some sort of trance while watching the chaos she had created.

"B-b-b-b-but... they are...," Marisa slurred with unbelieving and desperate look on her face, but Sakuya pulled her shoulder again.

"No time to weep because of the enemy, come on," Sakuya yelled with furious look on her face which finally got Marisa into moving. Marisa could hear the distant thunder storm approaching as she grabbed the liana and started climbing the vertical stone wall with Sakuya.

Wolf hadn't been caught in the beam and luckily neither did Sanae. Both of them just stood there on the platform of the temple and watched the destruction Marisa had caused. Sanae had never ever thought that Marisa's Hakkero was cabable of such destruction. Wolf on the other hand couldn't believe that such a tiny box could do anything let alone destroy a tank and kill dozens of soldiers.

"Shouldn't you do something to help your men?" Sanae finally said after watching the destroyed scene for long enough, but Wolf didn't repond. He just stood there looking at the wreckage before him. He was so amazed that he didn't even notice Marisa and Sakuya climbing into safety nor did the soldiers because they were already busy saving all they could.

Marisa and Sakuya reached finally the top of the cliff and as soon as they did they ran into the jungle to the direction where their plane was without even looking back.

"How did they die!? So many of them? I've used my spark on so many foes, humans and non humans and never has it killed anyone," Marisa yelled between her breaths while running. She still couldn't comprehend what had happened.

"Like I said. You are not using any natural power to fuel your spell in the outside world. You are using your own raw power which if not held back will kill almost anyone. And besides those troops have no magical power themselves so they do not have any kind of protection against spells," Sakuya explained while trying to remember the way back to the plane.

"That is why I was trying to keep you from using it. I know it drains your spirit as well, but you will regain powers that you used in just twelve hours. The main reason was to minimize the damage," Sakuya said and pushed a branch out from her way. Marisa just looked at her Hakkero with unbelieving look on her face while running after Sakuya.

As they ran towards their plane the first rain drops reached the bottom of the jungle and in under a minute the rain had already washed the whole ground and jungle soaking wet. The rain was typical for a rainforest, but neither Marisa or Sakuya weren't used for that kind of tropical shower. It had been completely sunny just half hour ago, but now you were lucky to see in front of yourself. Luckily Sakuya remembered where they had left their plane and after twenty minutes of running in the rain they finally could distinguish the river and the plane that had been covered in that camouflage fabric. They quickly ran up to it and removed the fabric from on top of the plane, folded it and charged right into the plane where it was still nice and dry.

The rain kept drumming the aluminum body of the plane as Marisa caught her breath after their run through the jungle in that weather. Sakuya on the other hand sat right into the seat of the pilot and started the engines. As soon as Marisa had caught her breath and realized what Sakuya was about to do she rushed to the cockpit.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! I may be just an idiot child when it comes to outside world, but I know well enough to not go even outside in a storm like this let alone to even think about flying," Marisa said with worried tone and look on her face as Sakuya drove the plane to the lake from the shore.

"We cannot wait, because neither will Wolf. We need to get to Galabagos islands before him and stormy or not, I will get us there," Sakuya said with serious and self confident look on her face as she accelerated the enginas and started to gather speed while piloting the plane upriver. Marisa could just sigh from nervousness as she felt how the plane took off in the rain. She just looked through the window as the jungle disappeared almost immediately after they took off and now only things she could see were the storm clouds, rain and the constant flashes of the lightings. The plane was shaking constantly and Marisa had to support herself if she didn't want to trip over.

"So how long will it take till we get to those islnads you were talking about?" Marisa yelled over the sound of the engines, rain and thunder.

"They are not so far away! Just an hour or two and we should see them if the weather has cleared by then," Sakuya responded while trying to keep the plane steady. Marisa then just gulped and headed to the back of the plane. For some reason she felt safer there when she didn't look through the window and see the raging storm. She could constantly feel it however. She just tried to stay calm and hoped that Sakuya would manage to get the plane to those islands safely. There was no chance to even think about sleeping in that weather, so Marisa didn't even bother to try.

The flight was extrememly uncomfortable and nerving. Lightnings were flashing from here and there and the rain didn't show any signs of subsiding. In fact it seemed to get worse by every passing minute. At the times Marisa could feel the electricity clearly in the air inside the plane. She was uncertain if that small plane could keep intact for the whole flight. Her worrying was however interrupted by Sakuya.

"Marisa, look there," Sakuya yelled from the cockpit. Marisa rushed to see what it was that Sakuya had seen. Sakuya pointed through the window. During every short lightning strike they could see the dark silhouette of an island in the distance.

"That is where we are aiming at, that island," Sakuya and Marisa could swear that she saw a glimmer of self confident grin on Sakuya's face. She grinned too, but her relief was short lived. Just after Marisa had seen the silhouette of the island she heard a deafening cracking of a lightning from above them followed by a blinding flash. The following few minutes were just complete blur in Marisa's mind, but when she finally came back to her senses she saw Sakuya trying to keep wobbling plane steady as well as she could. Marisa stood up while holding her head. She felt very dizzy.

"What happened!?" Marisa yelled after she finally got up from the floor of the plane. She felt really strange. She was tingling from all over her body.

"A lightning struck us! You were blown clear! I have tried to keep this thing going, but the other engine shut down immediately after the lightning strike," Sakuya yelled while the rain was beating her face through the broken window.

"C-can we make it!?" Marisa yelled with startled tone and look on her face.

"Most likely no! We have to jump! Go get the parachutes," Sakuya yelled back at Marisa while fighting to keep the plane in the air. Marisa just nodded and headed straight to the back of the plane. The hatch on the side of the plane was gone and the rain was getting in. Marisa faltered as she searched for the parachutes, but eventually she found two. She still remembered how to put one on after she had used the parachute for the first time. She rushed back to the cockpit after putting her parachute on and gave the other to Sakuya.

"You still see that island!? That is where you are supposed to aim! Now jump, I will be just behind you," Sakuya yelled to Marisa.

"What are you talking about you have to jump now too," Marisa yelled back at Sakuya whose grip was still tightly wrapped around the controls of that plane.

"If I let go now the plane will start to rotate and make it dangerous for the both of us! I can at least make sure that you get out safely! Now go," Sakuya yelled and signed Marisa to get going. Marisa then just gulped and nodded. She headed to the back of the plane. She tripped over to the junk that was filling the floor, but eventually reached the hole on the side of the plane. She peeked out. It was a total chaos on the outside of the plane.

"Once you get to the island search for man made structures I will meet you there," Marisa heard Sakuya yelling before a sudden air pocket made the plane wobble drastically which made Marisa to fall straight out from the plane. She couldn't do anything else than scream as she fell through the rain and lightnings. She could clearly see the silhouette of the island in the distance.

"O-okay Marisa you got this. Just pull the cord and you'll be fine," Marisa thought to herself with her eyes closed. She then reached for the cord of the parachute and pulled it. She felt how her falling slowed down as the parachute opened, but now she was completely at the mercy of the winds that were now throwing her to left and right. Her fall was far from controlled, but that wasn't the biggest of her worries. Just like she had feared she once again heard the same kind of deafening cracking sound from above herself followed once again by this blueish flash. Just for a micro second she thought that she could see the silhouette of their burning plane in the distance, but her vision darkened immediately after that. A lightning had once again blown her clear.

...

Under water

...

Above water

...

Hit some stones

...

Finally ashore

...

Marisa had no idea how long she had been unconscious when she started to wake up. She felt the rain drumming her back and head as she wiped some sand from her face. She spat out some salt water and rubbed her eyes. She had been laying against one of the stones on the rocky beach. Her feet were still in the water when she woke up and it was a miracle that she had been washed to the beach and not pulled back to the water by the waves. Her body hurt all over as she pulled herself fully to the beach. Her arms and legs were all shaking and she could barely stand up let alone keep it that way against the stormy winds and rain. Getting struck indirectly by two lightnings in just under five minutes isn't healthy for anybody.

"*Pant Right... *pant Something man made was it?" Marisa said while breathing heavily and tried to make sense of the landscape in front of her. The beach was covered in black rocks and stones and about ten meters away from her it truned into a jungle.

"Y-you are alive aren't you Sakuya... Right?" Marisa muttered to herself as she took her first steps towards the jungle. She had only taken about three steps when lightning lit the sky and beach. During that one second Marisa could clearly see that the beach was full of snakes. They were literally everywhere and all of them were slithering towards her. Marisa gulped in shock and started running as fast as she could towards the jungle. She didn't care if it hurt everywhere she just didn't want to become snake's afternoon meal. She ran over the stony beach and sighed for relief when she reached the jungle and after looking behind herself noticed how the snakes weren't following her there.

"Just... give me a break already," Marisa groaned while leaning against her knees. She then gathered herself and turned towards the jungle.

"Sakuya you better keep your promise. ...Talking to myself, that's the first sign of... crazy," Marisa muttered to herself as she started walking into the depths of the jungle. She was soaking wet, tired, bruised and hungry, but she knew that she couldn't stay at the beach. The strom made it almost impossible to see in front of oneself and the wind that seemed to get stronger and stronger every minute didn't help at all. After tripping over the ninth time Marisa knew that she had to get some rest or otherwise she wouldn't get anywhere. She started to look for a sheltered spot where she could lay down for an hour or two. While doing so she suddenly heard some distant engine roars from above herself. She looked up and saw planes flying over the island.

"Wolf and his men... Damn if they got here now I must have been out for at least an hour or maybe two," Marisa muttered to herself. Even if it was dark as night she still knew that it was early evening. The storm was just obscuring the sun so well that it looked like night. She kept searching for a good spot to lay down and finally found one. There was this one tree the roots of which had risen above ground after the tree had bent a bit. Under the roots there was a tiny hole large enough for a human. Marisa then gathered some large leaves and made a shelter using them and the roots pointing from the ground. She made sure that the leaves stayed in place with stones and after her shelter was done she crawled in. The leaves protected her quite well actually. They kept her as dry as she could be and the sound of rain drops hitting the surface of the leaves was quite hypnotic. Marisa was so tired that after curling up to her little hole she fell asleep almost immediately. She was just so tired from all of this.

Marisa slept for two hours until she woke up. Not because she would have heard anything, but because it was so silent. The storm had calmed. Marisa yawned as she opened her eyes and realized how muddy she was. Some of the water had gotten to her 'nest' and made the ground on top of which she had been sleeping really muddy. Marisa pushed the leaves away from on top of herself and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and lookd at her clothes. She was all dirty and a bit sweaty because it was quite hot now when the moisture percentage of the air was one hundred.

"Gah, I need a bath... and something to eat," Marisa thought to herself as she started to get up. She looked around herself. The storm had messed up the whole jungle. There were trees that had fallen to the dround and all sort of loose branches and other junk hanging from the trees. But the thing that surprised her the most was how silent and gloomy it was. Not even a slightest sound. It was like the time in the forest had stopped. Everything was covered in a thick mist that obscured everything past fifty meters. It was so thick that even if sun was still up barely any light reached the forest floor. It made Marisa feel very uncomfortable. There was also no wind at all, so the mist wasn't gonna clear any time soon. She also thought that even if the mist would clear the night would arrive soon enough so it would get darker either way. Marisa just looked around herself nervously before taking her first step, but after that she happened to look down after she had stepped on to some mud. She was about to scrape some of it of from her shoes, but she noticed something on the ground.

"Footprints?" Marisa muttered to herself while looking at a muddy spot on the ground near the tree under which she had slept.

"W-who would walk around this place in a storm? One of Wolf's men looking for me? Or Sakuya?" Marisa thought to herself as she squat down for a closer look. At first any of the choices she listed would have been credible, but one detail caught her attention.

"Bare feet. Who ever walked here doen't mind getting their feet wet...," Marisa thought to herself while looking at the footprints. After looking at the footprints for a moment she also noticed that they seemed to do weird turns where they were closest to the tree where she had slept, like whoever had walked there was looking for something.

"W-were they looking for me? ...Or what?" Marisa thought to herself and looked to the direction where the footprints lead. She thought that finding her way to the company of other humans seemed like a good idea at first, but after taking her first step towards the direction of the footprints she came into second thoughts. If someone was looking for her and that one wasn't one of Wolf's men or Sakuya why they had been looking for her. Suddenly Marisa's guts started to tell her that she didn't want to find out. That she should try to avoid anything related to those footprints. Marisa then just nervously turned to her right and headed to the direction that lead her deeper into the jungle. Knowing that she wasn't alone in the jungle didn't ease her feelings even a little. In fact it made her feel very unsafe, for she couldn't tell if she was in danger or not.

Marisa kept walking through the completely silent and still jungle while looking around herself constantly. She really couldn't see anything which made her senses sharpen. It was so silent that she thought that it would be easy for her to hear if someone or something was coming for her, but that thought also made her really nervous. What was she gonna do if someone were to attack her. And even worse what was the most likely thing to attack her.

These thoughts ran through Marisa's mind as she crossed a small opening in the jungle on a side of a small hill. Once on top of that hill and before entering jungle again she decided to stop and look around herself. She looked back towards that opening she had just crossed. She could just barely see the other side of the opening before mist obscured everything.

"Huh?" Marisa then uttered in confusion while squinting her eyes. It was like something moved near the edge of the jungle. Something shaped like human. Marisa couldn't be sure if she had actually seen something or was it just a hallucination. If it was something actually moving it had to be a human or some creature because there still wasn't any kind of wind, so it couldn't be just some branches moving. At first Marisa thought that she should yell and ask who was there, but not even a single peep came from her mouth.

"The greatest fear of human nature is the fear of the unknown... Do I really want to discover what's here in the jungle with me?" Marisa thought to herself before turning around quickly and continuing her walk deeper into the jungle. She knew that she had to find something man made, or at least that's what Sakuya told her. Truth be told she had no idea what she was looking for, but she expected it to be somthing that she would find eventually.

"Let's hope that I'll find it soon. I really wouldn't like it to get actually dark around here or I wont see a thing. Not mentioning my dear lurker here," Marisa said while taking a quick peek behind her. She walked for about ten meters before she suddenly stopped, and looked aroud herself carefully. She then pulled out her gun which she still had on her belt.

"What ever it is, it is toying with me," Marisa muttered while looking around herself and tried to listen, but the fact that it was completely silent didn't ease her mood even a slightest bit. That kind of atmosphere wasn't natural. Why she hadn't found Sakuya yet or heard anything from the Wolf's men.

"Damn I'm becoming too paranoid! There might be something out there, but this is the outside world there arent' any monsters here! Just one of Wolf's men who lost his shoes. Wolf sends his men to scout the area, that's what he does... right?" Marisa thought to herself, put her gun back to its place and slapped herself to the face. Even though she tried to convince to herself that there was nothing to worry about she couldn't believe herself. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't scrape off the feeling of being hunted.

"It is like visiting Scarlet Devil Mansion," Marisa muttered and grinned a little. She then sighed and continued her walk. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed a some sort of radio tower in the distance. Even if it was so misty the silhouette of that tower could still be seen through the mist. Once Marisa saw that silhouette she knew where she needed to head.

"Now with any luck Sakuya will be waiting for me there... with seriously large amount of luck...," Marisa thought to herself as she picked up her pace as she forgot her fears of someone hunting on her.

She rushed through the jungle as fast as she could while trying not to accidentally hit any branch that was on the level of her face. After five minutes she finally reached another opening in the middle of which she saw the radio tower. Now when she was closer she saw that the tower had to be really old. Around the radio tower there were about dozen deserted buildings and one a bit larger one made out of concrete. Each building looked like it had been very simple when they were still in use. Now the vegetation had taken over all of the buildings that hadn't already collapsed. The whole thing was surrounded by two meters tall mesh fence, but it was so rusty and full of holes that Marisa had no problem getting through it.

"Is this what Sakuya meant? The... base or what ever it was? It is not really impressive. In fact this is just tiny," Marisa muttered to herself as she walked closer to one of the ruined buildings. She peeked inside from a broken window, but the building had nothing in it. Just grass growing from the floor and some rusty old metal tables.

"Well this is definitely man made... but where's Sakuya?" Marisa thought to herself as she looked around herself in that small cluster of buildings. She then decided to take a closer look at that concrete building in the middle of it all next to that radio tower. Once Marisa got closer she saw that there was this quite massive iron door on that building.

"Looks important, but not nearly important enough to be a treasure chamber," Marisa thought to herself and touched the rusty surface of that door. It was still wet from tha storm and mist. She looked around herself once again. Nobody. She then looked at the door again.

"Might as well give it a try since Sakuya is nowhere to be seen," Marisa said, shrugged her shoulders and gave the door a sharp push. It moved a little. It wasn't locked, or if it was the lock had rusted and broken long time ago. Marisa backed away a little and gave it another push. This time she felt how the door almost opened, but when she was just about to push it for the thrid time she heard something. Steps clearly coming form around the corner. Marisa's heart skipped a beat as she turned towards the leaft side corner of that building. She stood there and waited what for would come from around the corner while breathing heavily. Finally the steps got close enough that what ever it was it would come out from hiding. Marisa backed away one step, but for her surprise from around the corner there didn't come any monster or anything.

"What took you so long?" Sakuya asked after arriving from around the corner and looking at Marisa who looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"Thank the gods it was you," Marisa said and sighed for relief. Sakuya just tilted her head in confusion.

"I have waited for you for hours. Where have you been all this time?" Sakuya asked from Marisa who was still quite pale.

"I came here as soon as I could. After I jumped from the plane a lightining struck me and knocked me out. Luckily I woke up from the beach. I headed to the jungle, but the storm was raging still so I had to find a a place for myself to stay in until the storm would clear. Plus I was too tired so I had to sleep for a while. Finally I found a perfect place from under this one tree that had bent a bit in the storm. Under its roots was perfect place for me to sleep for a while," Marisa explained why it had taken her so long to get to Sakuya.

"You slept in jungle during a storm? Are you out of your mind? What if one of Wolf's men found you or something worse?" Sakuya scolded Marisa angrily.

"No I didn't sleep in open area, I covered my spot with leaves so I wouldn't be seen and it would offer more protection," Marisa explained and then turned towards the iron door of that concrete building.

"But anyhow, here we are. This place isn't as nearly as impressive as I thought it would be. There are just few ruined buildings and that tower here," Marisa said while looking at the door at first and then at Sakuya.

"That is the trick. Yes you are right this place does not seem like much, but did not I say that this is a submarine base. Why would it be here in the middle of the island?" Sakuya asked from Marisa and grinned. She then walked up to the door and they pushed it open. The heavy rusty iron door creaked as it opened slowly and pushed some mold and grass from its way that had grown to the other side of the door. Once the door was fully open Marisa could finally see what it was being hidden inside of that building, but before Marisa could take a look inside a terrible smell reached her nose. It was like something rotting had been set aflame. Marisa had to back away from the door for a moment and hold her nose so she wouldn't throw up. Sakuya too backed away from the door about five meters.

"What the heck was that?" Marisa yelped when she finally could open her mouth safely without having to fear throwing up.

"*Cough I do not know, I truly do not know. God...," Sakuya said and swiped the air in front of her face with her hand. They then walked closer to the open door again now when the smell had scattered in to the surrounding area and the air become breathable again. They took a look inside. Marisa saw how the whole building was full of old rusty machinery and pipes going along the walls. It actually looked like a carage that would have been left alone in a jungle for about seventy years. Everything had rusted and ruined long time ago.

"How is this supposed to be the place were headed? There's nothing here," Marisa complained as she stepped inside the building.

"Well of course there is nothing here. Eisen Lachs was the largest submarine base of that time and if you want to hide it properly you have to build it underground," Sakuya said and walked to the far end of the building where there was another iron door. Without any hesitation Sakuya grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. Marisa then walked up to Sakuya and looked through the open door. There was a pitch black staircase leading down underground.

"The Eisen Lachs is actually a huge underground complex made to house two thousand troops. The above ground part that you have seen is only a distraction. The true base extends from here to the coast where there is a cliff overlooking the ocean and inside of that cliff there is a submarine hangar," Sakuya said while looking towards the dark saircase. Marisa looked into the staircase too ans shivered a little.

"While I was waiting for you I saw a bunch of Wolf's men scouting the area and it will be just a matter of time until they get here. We should move, this is the final leg of our journey. If the treasure is not here... it does not exist at all," Sakuya said and looked Marisa before taking her first step towards the staircase leading down. But before she could get any further Marisa grabbed her sleeve and wouldn't let go.

"What is it?" Sakuya asked with confused look on her face and turned towards Marisa. She was surprised to see the look on Marisa's face. She was utterly terrified.

"S-Sakuya, there's something I need to tell you," Marisa said and gulped while looking at the darkness behind Sakuya.

"Look at me and tell me what it is," Sakuya said and turned Marisa's face towards her own with concerned look on her face.

"There's a thing I didn't mention when I told you where I had been for those hours. When I woke up and was just about continue my search for you I saw... I saw footprints in a pool of mud," Marisa said with shivering tone and scared look on her face.

"What kind of footprints?" Sakuya asked with serious look on her face. She understood that Marisa wasn't joking around.

"One who made the footprints wasn't using any kind of footwear. The footprints were done using bare feet. At first I thought that it might be you or one of Wolf's men, but why would you or any of them move around without footwear. On top of that it seemed that the whoever made those footprints was looking... for something since they seemed to meander around the area where I slept," Marisa said while trying to not to look towards the darkness behind Sakuya in the staircase.

"Is there anything else?" Sakuya asked without changing the concerned look on her face.

"Well there was this one... thing I saw. When I crossed this one opening in the jungle and after reaching the other side of it I looked behind myself and saw something moving in the distance. At first I thought it was just wind moving some branches, but because it was completely calm and the thing I saw was too human like I had to reject that idea," Marisa said with sweat dripping from her forehead.

"Sakuya I swear there's something out there in the mist...," Marisa said with terrified glimmer in her eyes. Sakuya just looked at her for a moment and then behind herself into the dark staircase. She then sighed deeply and looked straight into Marisa's eyes.

"I was hoping that you would not have noticed, but it seems that you have. We are not alone on this island with Wolf and his men. I have seen them too. Figures moving just barely within my sight in the mist. Not once have I seen what they are, but they are not Wolf's men that is for sure. I am sorry to say this but we are being watched and I have no idea by who," Sakuya said with serious look on her face and lowered her hand onto Marisa's shoulder.

"I'm sorry but I cannot go there. My instincts tell me that we should stay as far away as we can from that place," Marisa said and backed away from the staircase.

"Marisa you cannot stay. Once Wolf and his men arrive to this place they will kill you. I promise that I will keep you safe... from whatever might lurk within this bunker," Sakuya said and looked into the dark staircase. Marisa just looked at Sakuya for a moment, gulped and nodded. She then took a step forward and stepped on to the first step of that staircase. Sakuya then reached for her pocket and pulled out Sanae's phone to shed some light around the staircase so they could see something.

"That thing still works?" Marisa asked with surprised but still shivering tone and look on her face after Sakuya switched the flashligth on.

"Yeah, it is waterproof after all, but even I have to admit that I too am surprised to see that this works," Sakuya said and started descending down the stairs into the underground base. The stairs led them at least twenty meters below ground before the stairs ended and the corridors started. It would have been pitch dark without Sanae's phone. The walls were made out of concrete and they had crumbled significantly in the course of the years. There were loads of rusty pipes going along the walls and the corridor itself was kinda narrow. Two person could just barely fit side by side while walking along it. The floors of that corridor were mostly filled with rubble that had crumbled off from the concrete walls. There were also some rusty tools every now and then among the rubble on the floor. After walking for about twenty meters along the corridor there thay started to come across crossing corrdiors that all looked as dark and scary as the one they were walking along.

"You sure you know where we are supposed to head?" Marisa asked nervously and silently from Sakuya who was walking ahead of her.

"Pretty sure. I have visited this base when it was brand new and I can safely say that I remember most of this base," Sakuya said while trying to remember from which crossing corridor they had to turn. Marisa was abit relieved after hearing that but she still kept constantly looking behind herself to make sure they weren't followed by someone... or something.

"S-Sakuya by the way, how come Wolf and his men know about this place? Didn't you say that this place was hidden and you knew where we needed to head only because you have visited this place a long time ago," Marisa asked to get her thoughts away from possible dangers for a moment.

"That is true, but I am afraid that a plane such as our's is kinda easy to track down. I assume that they just followed us here and started search for what ever we are after," Sakuya said as she turned right from a crossing corridor which lead them even further down.

"We are starting to reach the living quarters of this base," Sakuya said and pointed at the vault doors on the sides of the corridor. Marisa then carefully walked up to one of them and peeked inside from the broken small window on the door. The room inside had two bunk beds and some rusty remains of some simple furniture. All and all the room hadn't really aged well. But what surprised Marisa the most was the fact that on top of one rusty metal table there were still even after all these years a really old looking book and some ruined cutlery.

"Seems like whoever lived in this room didn't bother to take their belongings with them when they left. Well at least there are no bodies which is a relief," Marisa muttered while looking through the small window on the door. Sakuya then stepped closer and turned the rusty valve on the door. It was really thight at first because it was really rusty, but it gave in soon enough and Sakuya was able to get the door open. They walked inside to take a better look at the room. Sakuya lifted the ruined book from the table and looked at it. It was so rotted that she couldn't make sense of even the title of the book.

"No bodies and everything is left behind... Well if this had been found by historians it would not be in this conditions, so we are the first ones to set foot in here in decades," Sakuya muttered and layed the book back down to the table.

"And neither was this base attacked by the allied forcer for it would be either destroyed or capture which would have led this base to become known by everyone. This was just abandoned and everything was left behind. It does not make any sense. If they had the treasure in here, why just leave and left everything behind, assumably the treasure too," Sakuya wondered out loud. Marisa just looked at her in confusion and tilted her head.

"Let's find the command center. We might find answers from there," Sakuya said and signed Marisa to follow her as she left the room. They shut the door behind them and continued to walk along the corridor even further down to the earth. Marisa thought that they were lucky because they hadn't encountered anything signs of anything or anyone else being in that base together with them. That however wasn't enough to get her to lower her guard. She was still keeping herself as close to Sakuya as she could.

They walked down the dark and and ruined corridors for at least half hour without encountering anything. Not a signel sign of life nor any sign of death, because they didn't come across even a single body on their way towards the command center. On Marisa's opinion it was a welcome change to the course of events for once not to have to deal with corpses of some unlucky people. But what got her absorbed in her thoughts the most was the idea that she had originally planned on doing this all by herself. Had it not been Reimu sending Sakuya and Sanae after her she would most likely be currently dead and if not she would never set a foot into a place like this alone. These thoughts kept her distracted from the fact that she currently was in that place where she really didn't want to be. While thinking about all of this Marisa and Sakuya finally reached the command center. It was behind one of those vault doors they had passed by, but this one wasn't on the side of the corridor and instead at the end of one. Sakuya started turning the valve, but it was so thight that she had to ask help from Marisa to get it open. Finally they managed to get the door open and behind it opened a surprisingly beautiful view. The command center was this room filled with control panels and seats. The room was overlooking the submarine hangar that sakuya had mentioned. It was visible through the huge glass windows on the walls of that room. The submarine hangar was utterly huge. It was at least thirty meters from its floor to its ceiling near the which the command center was. And in the middle of the hangar there was this big submarine canal for the maintenance of the submarines, which had apparentally failed since there was one rusty and half sunken submarine laying in the canal. On the far end of the hangar there was this huge iron gate almost as tall as the hangar itself which had probably been used to allow submarines to leave and enter. The gate itself was slightly open so one could just barely see the dark night sky and few stars through it. One could also see also some walkways on the side of the hangar near the ceiling and the floor level and many corridors leading back into the depths of that base on the walls where there were walkways. Well when compared to what Marisa had seen earlier on their trip this wasn't really a too beautiful view, but when compared to the rest of what she had seen in the submarine base so far this was kinda cool view.

"S-so this is the base...," Marisa muttered with impressed tone and look on her face as she walked closer to the glass to take a better look at the view.

"Even the actual submarine... it is still here," Sakuya said while looking at the submarine down at the bottom of the hangar.

"The commander's cabin is just here. Let's see what the final entries of the log says about the events in this base," Sakuya said and walked to the door on the left side wall of the room in which they currently were. Marisa then released her eyes from the view that could be seen through the glass and followed Sakuya as she opened the door to the commander's room. Sakuya pulled the door open and behind it opened a fairly big room, but it was in a same condition as the one they had inspected earlier. All the stuff was like it had been abandoned without even bothering to take the most important items with you. Sakuya just walked up to a rotten drawer next to a iron bed that had a rotten mattres on it.

"This is a long shot, but we can at least hope that the logs have survived," Sakuya muttered as she opened the drawer and started rummaging through its ruined contents. Finally she pulled out a book that seemed to be in a surprisingly good shape. She opened it and started turning the pages in fast pace.

"Yes, there are handwritten markings about the events of each individual day," Sakuya said while trying to find the latest entries.

"Yes, here it is. 23.5 1942 I've just sent a report about our find in the Amazonian jungles to the higher authorities. We've given the artefact to our scientists. It is made of pure gold, that much we could figure out by ourselves, but I have heard tales about one certain fairytale artefact. I don't want to jump into coclusions, but if this truly is it...," Sakuya read out loud. She then stopped and flipped the page.

"24.5 1942 It is it, it actually is Sampo. I don't know how it got into the jungles of Amazon, but that's not our business anyway. What matters is is that it actually does what it's said in the legends and we have it. We tried using and suddenly it started to grind gold, salt and flours for us. This is magnificent! With this artefact the grand German empire and the whole world shall have everlasting resources of food and wealth. We will report about it as soon as we have time, but now we will celebrate this. Sampo will be put to use immediately," Sakuya continued to read out loud and then flipped the page again.

"Huh? That is the last entry," Sakuya said with a bit confused look on her face, closed the book and put it on top of the draver.

"That's pretty creepy if you ask me," Marisa said with a bit nervous tone and look on her face as she watched Sakuya looking at the book with thoughtful look on her face.

"What is?" Sakuya asked and looked at Marisa.

"The fact that the first day everyone are planning to celebrate their find and next day everyone are gone. Not even a single trace left," Marisa said and looked at the book on the drawer with uneasy look on her face.

"Y-yeah, it sound pretty weird. But come one, the book said that the Sampo was taken to the laboratories. They are even further deep in this base so we might want to get going," Sakuya said and signed Marisa to follow her as she stepped out from the commander's room. Once she entered the command center she immediately headed for the back wall where there was a map about the whole base.

"Okay to the east from here is an another hangar meant for weapon storage and development. Before that we will reach the generators. Beyond those two are the laboratories. We need to backtrack a little to reach the generators and the other hangar, but it should not take us too long to get there," Sakuya mumbled while looking at the map on the wall.

"Uhmm, Sakuya?" Sakuya heard Marisa saying from behind her. She turned around and saw Marisa standing near the window looking towards the huge iron gate at the far end of the hangar. After Sakuya had walked up to the window she could clearly see some lights coming from the direction of that slightly open iron gate. Some boats entered the hangar through the gate.

"Shit, it is Wolf and his men. Apparently they found the main gate," Sakuya said with not so pleased look on her face as she backed away from the window and gestured to Marisa to do the same so they wouldn't be seen.

"We do not have much time left, we have to get to the laboratories ASAP," Sakuya said and headed for the door through which they had entered the command center. They needed to get back into the corridors if they wanted to get to the laboratories. Marisa didn't like this but she really didn't have a choice. Sakuya pulled the door open, they rushed through it and closed it behind themselves.

"Okay we backtrack a little, then make a few turns and we should be on a right track. Just follow me," Sakuya said and pointed Sanae's phone towards the direction they needed to head. Entering that narrow corridor again didn't really appeal to Marisa. She just hoped that they could proceed in peace.

About ten minutes passed as Marisa followed Sakuya's lead into the depths of the base. They currently were in an area where they hadn't been before. They had already left the living quarters far behind themselves and were currently just walking therough the semy empty corridors. Every now and then there was maybe a rusty trolley or some other tool that was just laying there.

"What do you think, how soon will Wolf reach the laboratories?" Marisa then asked with nervous tone and look on her face.

"Well definitely longer than it will take for us to reach it. In the end Wolf does not know the place as well as I do," Sakuya said while looking to right and left while passing a crossing corridor.

"Yeah, but they have the required tools to force their way through these walls I assume," Marisa said and touched the wall on her right side.

"Maybe so, but trying to do that would be too hazardous. These tunnels could collapse if the walls were to be dug through," Sakuya said without even looking at Marisa, but she soon stopped when she didn't hear a response.

"Marisa?" Sakuya asked and turned around to see what was keeping her so quiet. When she turned towards Marisa she saw how Marisa was shivering and looking at the point on the wall she had just touched.

"What is it?" Sakuya asked and walked up to Marisa who looked like she would had just seen a ghost.

"S-Sakuya? We are the first ones to set foot in here for decades, right? Then why is...," Marisa stammered and backed away from the wall while pointing at a bloody handprint on the wall. Sakuya walked closer to the handprint. It looked like someone had been pulling their bloody hand across the wall until finally separating it from it leaving a messy trail of blood and a handprint on to the wall.

"What the...," Sakuya mumbled as she took a closer look at the handprint on the wall, but soon turned around and saw Marisa curling up on to the floor and breathing frantically. Sakuya then kneeled before her, grabbed her from her cheeks and turned her head straight towards hers.

"Marisa look at me. What ever is here with us cannot be too clever. You are being toyed around by your most basic instincts. That is how predators work they track down their prey and wait till it reaches the point where the most primal instincts take over and the prey becomes vulnerable," Sakuya said while staring into Marisa's eyes. Marisa just looked at Sakuya with frantic look on her face, but didn't respond.

"Take a hold of yourself! Is this the Marisa I have known for all these years?" Sakuya almost shouted at Marisa while staring into her eyes with furious burn in her eyes. Marisa just sat there silently while hugging her knees. Sakuya stood there kneeled before Marisa for about a half minute straight in complete silence. She had no other choice than to wait for her to calm down. She knew very well that Marisa had a reason to be afraid and she couldn't just leave her here.

"*Sigh What am I gonna do with you?" Sakuya then sighed and asked with a bit annoyed look on her face while shaking her head, but she could just barely finish her sentence when she started hearing something. A tapping sound almost like footsteps. She stood there quetly, covered Marisa's mouth so her breathing wouldn't cause so much noise and turned off the flashlight on Sanae's phone. She just tried not to move and listened how the noise got closer. She slowly reached for her belt and pulled her gun out slowly so her movement wouldn't be seen. It was so dark that it was almost impossible to see anything at all, but she wanted to play it safe. She then glanced at Marisa who was watching to the direction behind Sakuya where the sound came from.

"O-one of Wolf's men?" Marisa managed to stutter silently after Sakuya had taken her hand away from her mouth. Sakuya turned her head slowly towards the source of the sound and could just barely see a dark human like figure standing about fifteen meters away from them where the corridors crossed. It seemed like the figure had arrived from one of these side corridors.

"No, I do not think that is one of his men," Sakuya whispered, stood up as slowly as she could and pointed Sanae's phone at the figure. She then turned on the light to see what was there with them. At the first millisecond Sakuya could tell that it definitely wasn't Wolf's troop. The thing in front of them had a human like body, but that's where the similarities ended. It's face could hardly even be described. It seemed like a face of the human after being pummeled with a brick and then left to rot for years. It had only pieces of torn skin attached to its body and it was wearing some old looking rags. It's hands and feet were covered in what seemed like its own blood because all the wounds and deformations in its body. It let out a vague moans and then a roar that sounded awfully like that of a human in pain. It started running towards Sakuya and Marisa as fast as it could with its stiff and deformed legs while swinging its arms in the air and spittle dripping from its large open mouth. Sakuya didn't hesitate for a moment and shot one accurate shot straight through the creature's skull making it fall to the ground instantly. It let out few of those horrid moans before falling limp.

"O-oh shit! What was that thing!?" Marisa yelled in almost panic and backed away from the corpse of the creature that Sakuya had just shot. Sakuya looked at it for a while with a bit shocked look on her face, but she was quickly snapped out from it when she heard more of those same kind of moans coming from the distance. She quickly ran up to the junction where the corridors crossed and looked to each direction.

"Marisa! You might want to get up," Sakuya then yelled at Marisa with furious look on her face. There were at leats dozens of them coming at them from each drection.

"The generator room only has two exits if we can get there and shut the exits before any of these reach it we might have a safe place," Sakuya yelled and signed Marisa to get up. Marisa just looked at Sakuya with frantic look on her face. She didn't understand what was going on, but soon when she heard one of those creatures let out a screeching scream her instincts took control and she pushed herself from the ground and towards the direction to which Sakuya was pointing. As soon as Marisa had passed her Sakuya ran after her while constantly looking behind herself. They had ran past the junction where the first of those monsters had appeared and now Sakuya saw how more started ran after them. First dozens and after a moment she could swear she heard the sound of almost hundreds of those monsters. They were running so fast that the monsters didn't seem to catch up with them, but they didn't really fall back either.

"Sakuya!? There's few of them up ahead," Marisa yelled over the moans and screams of those things chasing them.

"Stay back," Sakuya commanded as she slowed down a bit for a better aim. Three of those monsters ran straight at them from up ahead. Sakuya fired three shots two of which hit the heads of those things, but one hit the chest of the montser. The monster slowed down a bit, screamed and then continued running. Sakuya shot it again, this time hitting its head and it too fell to the ground.

"Let's move," Sakuya then yelled as they continued their run towards the possible safe heaven. The ones chasing them had caught up with Sakuya and Marisa a little because they had to slow down to take care of the ones ahead of them, but not nearly enough to posses any danger yet.

"It is just up ahead," Sakuya yelled after turning left from a crossing corridor and Marisa followed her. At the end of the corridor there was this shut vault door like the one before the command center. Sakuya and Marisa ran towards it as fass as they could.

"Get it open, I will cover you," Sakuya yelled, slowed down and turned around. She steadied her aim and started shooting while backing away from the creatures constantly. Marisa on the other hand grabbed the valve on the door and started turning it with all her strength.

"MOVE GODDAMNIT," Marisa yelled as she finally got the valve to stir a bit. She then finally got it moving and she started to open the door.

"Any time now," Sakuya yelled while reloading her weapon and shooting at least four of those creatures running their way, before Marisa grabbed Sakuya from her collar and pulled her together with herself into the room and pressed the door shut behind them. Few of those monsters managed to stick their arms between the wall and the door preventing it from being shut. After Sakuya had recovered from being pulled so suddenly she stood up from the floor and ran to help Marisa with the door. With the two of them together they managed to force the door shut by crushing those arms between the wall and the door. Finally they felt the door being closed and as soon as it was Sakuya turned the valve back into the locked position. She then immediately backed away from the door while breathing heavily, but before she could even say a thing she turned around and for her relief she saw the other door on the far end of the room being closed too. She then turned back towards the door through which they had just ran. Marisa was still standing there looking at the door behind which they could still hear the monsters moaning and scratching the door.

"What the hell were those things?" Marisa then uttered and backed away from the door and the few arms that were laying on the floor and twitching a little.

"D-did these... things... kill the germans?" Marisa asked as she kneeled before the severed limb laying on the ground. She did not dare to touch it.

"No, they did not. Have you seen any bodies during our time here? The germans were not killed by anyone. They are still here with us. That first one I killed and got a better look at had a worn out uniform. Marisa, those creatures are the original owners of this place," Sakuya said with serious look on her face and took a few steps closer to her.

"But how's that even possible. Those things weren't even close to being human," Marisa said and turned towards Sakuya.

"I-I do not know," Sakuya responded and shook her head. She then walked up to the generators placed near the walls. Marisa followed her and watched her to inspect the generators.

"Could you help me out a little. If we can turn even one of these on we might get some electricity running through the base and if we are lucky maybe even some light," Sakuya said while inspecting the crank on the side of the generator.

"Just start spinning these. If these generators still have fuel they should start," Sakuya said and showed Marisa how to do it. There were five of those generators in total. After Marisa started to start her generator sakuya tried to get second one to working. They went through each generator one by one and managed to get three of them into working again. How ever one of them was working just barely, but working nonetheless.

"Oh yeah, now we are talking," Sakuya said with a bit more hopeful smile on her face and clapped her hands together while watching the ceiling. After a few seconds and few blinks one light bulb lit to on the ceiling giving them enough light that they didn't need Sanae's phone anymore.

"So what are we going to do now?" Marisa asked while looking at the dim light bulb on the ceiling. It was a miracle that even it alone had survived all these years.

"Well we need to push forward. The only way out is to either backtrack or through the weapon hangar. But now when all of the germans being like... well that, it is going to be hard. But either way we need to get to Sanae, nothing else matters," Sakuya said while leaning against one of the running generators.

"Not all of them...," Sakuya then heard Marisa saying from behind her. She turned around and saw Marisa pointing at the corner of the room where she saw something laying. She took a few steps closer to see what it was.

"This one never turned," Marisa said with expressionless look on her face while pointing at the bundle in the corner. Marisa was right, it was a body. But this one wasn't like the monstrosities they encountered a moment ago. This one had been dead for a long time and the body had aged significantly. Sakuya kneeled before it and touched the uniform the corpse was wearing.

"Poor bastard...," Sakuya muttered while looking at the corpse. Marisa then walked next to her and kneeled beside her.

"What's this?" Marisa then asked and took something from the corpse's hand. It was a note. It had aged along with the body, but after Marisa gave it to Sakuya she saw that it was still in a readable condition.

"26.5 1942 I, Arnold Falkenrath, am the last remaining survivor of the Eisen Lachs. In just two days the god knows what took over my fellow soldiers who hadn't turned immediately when it happened. After the Sampo was discovered and researched the commander gave us the rest of the day off for celebration. Because of formality our commander wanted that a there had to be a banquet made from the endless ingrediens we got from Sampo. I was currently finishing my shift with few of my mates when the banquet was supposed to start. We planned to join our comrades even if we were a bit late, but what we found when we entered the dining area was something like out of a horror story. Everyone in the dining area had gone insane. Clawing their skin inside out and those who were still undergoing the change were being eaten alive by the others. Me and about ten others formed a unit and tried to fend off these horrid things that our friends had become, but one by one they started falling too. Some of my freinds were ripped to shreads by those monsters and the others turned into them after two hours of being bitten. I've now shut myself into the generator room where I am safe, but without food or anything to drink I will die soon. May god have mercy on our souls," Sakuya read out loud and after finishing just stared blankly at the note.

"My god... Of course, dammit of course. How come we were so blind?" Sakuya muttered and dropped the note from her hands.

"What? Blind to what?" Marisa asked with confused tone and look on her face.

"Sampo, the curse, it is turning people into these... monsters," Sakuya said and pointed at the door in the dim light.

"How come?" Marisa asked with even more confused look on her face.

"Don't you see? Back at the altar under the Saana it said that, 'The greatest demand of mankind will be their undoing.' It did not say greed or lust or crawing or desire. It was referring to what is necessary for us. The food, that is what is tainted. It is... well cursed with something. Eat it or get bitten by one who has eaten it and you will turn into that monster," Sakuya said and lowered her hands on top of her knees.

"It was not greed that killed Erik the Red's men, or some unknown invader who killed the native american back in that temple, it was this... virus. Once the native americans realized the curse within the Sampo they took it away all the way to the Amazonian jungles from where our german friends finally found it, brought it here and were destroyed by the very same curse as the Eric the Red's men back under the Saana," Sakuya said and sighed while looking at the corpse in front of her. Marisa could swear that she saw a glimmer of pride on Sakuya's face after she had realized what the curse actually was.

"So it is something like jiangshi?" Marisa asked with careful tone and curious look on her face.

"Yeah, something like that I believe," Sakuya said and stood up while shaking some dust off from her pants.

"Oh my gods...," Marisa then uttered with shocked look on her face.

"What is it?" Sakuya asked after turning towards Marisa.

"Sanae, Wolf is taking Sanae directly to Sampo. If they reach it...," Marisa said with a bit terrified look on her face.

"Cannot say that I would like to take her back to Gensokyo after that," Sakuya said after she realized what Marisa meant.

"Come on, we cannot stay here we have to stop Wolf and snatch Sanae from him," Sakuya said and rushed to the door that had been already closed when they entered the generator room. Marisa followed her and gave her a hand at opening it. They turned the valve until the door opened and they pushed it open slowly and carefully.

"I would recommend you to take out your gun. I am sure we will encounter more of those creatures," Sakuya said and looked at nodding, but nervous Marisa. Marisa took her pistol from her belt and loaded it.

"Remember, aim for the head. It seems that body shots do not stop them," Sakuya instructed before heading into the now semi dark corridors. Now when the generators were up and running few lights every here and there had lit. Even if the lights lit the place a bit it was still so dark that they could just barely see in front of themselves, but at least Sakuya didn't need to use Sanae's phone to shed some light around.

Some sparks flew out from the broken electricity cables on the walls. They had walked for few minutes and were closing on to that weapon hangar where they were supposed to head.

"Don't you think we should have encountered at least one of those things after we got out from that generator room?" Marisa broke the silence by asking.

"Yeah, it is odd. Let's just hope something else is keeping them busy... and that something is not Sanae," Sakuya said while scratching her hair, but the silence was quickly broken again when they heard a pretty familiar moaning from the depths of the corridors. And not just one, there were many of them.

"Take a listen to that," Sakuya said and gestured Marisa to stop. They listened for a while. It seemed that the sound wasn't coming towards them, but instead going away from them. Sakuya thought about it for a while, but she was quickly snapped out of it when she heard a gunfire from the same direction where the moaning came from.

"Oh shit, we need to hurry," Sakuya then gasped and started running to the direction where the moans came. Marisa quickly ran after her. She saw Sakuya turning left from a crossing corridor. She followed her and managed to get a glimpse of Sakuya stabbing one of those horrid monsters to the back of its head. It had headed to the same direction as they were, but hadn't heard them approaching from behind of it, so Sakuya could easily just get rid of it. Marisa just jumped over the body Sakuya had left behind. She soon saw a light coming from the end of the corridor. It was the hangar they had been after. The gun sounds and moaning had gotten really loud by now. Before she could even notice she was standing on a walkway overlooking a surprisingly well lit hangar that was almost as spacious as the submarine hangar. They were standing on one of the many walkways going along the walls of the hangar about twenty meters above the floor level. Sakuya had ducked behind the railing on the side of the walkway, so she wouldn't be seen. Marisa quickly did the same and readied herself.

"It's a full on war going around here," Marisa said while holding her ears. They then peeked from their cover. It seemed that neither the monsters or the Wolf's troops had noticed their arrival which was a relief. The troops where shooting at the hoards and hoards of those creatures as they stormed the hangar. The hangar was filled with old weapon crates, tanks and vehicles.

"We have the element of surprise here. Let's try to flank them and take them out," Sakuya said and started crouching along the walkway.

"What do you mean take them out? Those monsters will get us if the troops are taken out," Marisa exclaimed over the gunfire.

"You have a better idea. If I have to choose between a bullet hell and a hoard of braindead walking corpses, I will choose the corpses. At least they do not shoot us full of bullets," Sakuya said while they descended towards the floor level. Once they finally got down to the floor level they hid behind a rusty truck that was laying near the stairs leading down from that walkway. Sakuya peeked from behind the truck and saw that the situation had kinda frozen. The troops were shooting as many of those monsters as they managed but more and more of those creatures came from within the base through an open door.

"Okay Marisa, here is the plan. We split up, there is an old explosives crate near that door through which those monsters come. Blow it up and the door should collapse on top of itself and prevent more of them entering. Meanwhile I will keep these assholes busy and try to force them to retreat," Sakuya said while pointing near the door next to which was a wooden crate.

"Think you can handle it?" Sakuya asked and looked at Marisa.

"Not that I'll have a choice, do I. Okay let's do it," Marisa said after sighing and nodding to Sakuya. Sakuya then just grinned and then they split up. Marisa waited until Sakuya had dashed behind another truck. She then looked at Marisa and nodded. After doing that Sakuya stood up from her cover and started shooting at the troops. They hadn't had enough time to see if Wolf or Sanae was among them before acting. After Sakuya had engaged into a firefight with the troops Marisa dashed from her own cover towards the wooden crate. It was now when she realized that in order to get to the crate she would have to get through those creatures. She had her gun, but firing it would just attract unwanted attention from the soldiers, so instead she grabbed a loose snippet of a metal pipe and whacked the first creature to its head once she got close enough. It didn't seem to kill it, but at least it immobilazed it for long enough. She looked behind herself and saw Sakuya constantly shooting at the troops on the other side of the room. The soldiers had more firepower so Sakuya had to change cover from time to time because the old one was shot to pieces. The truck she had been behind of was also full of old explosive. Most of which were still active. Sakuya had changed her cover twice already since the first truck had caught fire, but she didn't know that the truck was loaded with explosives. The firefight continued for about a minute before the fire spread to the explosive crates at the back of the truck and they too caught fire. Soon after that a massive explosion happened behind Sakuya as the explosives on the back of the truck went off all at once. Sakuya was currently behind a concrete wall when it happened. She dugged down and held her head for protection as a reaction to the explosion. The explosion then started a chain reaction litting even more vehicles alfame near it. Some of which also had explosives. Even more and more explosions started to happen all around the hangar. Marisa on the other hand used this to her advantage. The creatures seemed to be distracted by the firefigth and the explsions so she didn't need to fight her way through them. The creatures started to head to the direction of the noises giving even more pressure for the troops that had to start backing away because the explosions and the monsters started closing on to them. Marisa grabbed a burning piece of wood that had been blasted near her from the force of one of those explosions. She ran towards the crate and once she got close enough she threw the burning piece of wood on top of it having the crate catching fire too. She immediately turned away from the crate whacking one of the monsters that had headed to her way with the back of her pistol. She thought that it was enough to at least stagger the creature, but she was wrong. The creature grabbed Marisa from her shirt just when she had thought she had gotten past it. Marisa wrenched herself free from the grip of the creature, turned around and shot three bullets straigth at the creatures horrifying face. The creature dropped dead, but now even more headed towards Marisa. She started shooting them killing at leats five before one of them that Marisa thought had been dead had crawled near her and grabbed her leg making her to trip over and fall to her stomach. She kicked the creature with her free foot releasing herself just before the monster tried to bite her. She was just about to stood up again when the burning crate finally detonated the explosives in it. The explsion did exactly what Sakuya had predicted. The old concrete wall crumbled and collapsed on to that door covering the entrance to that hangar, and making it impossible for more of those creatures to enter. Marisa on the other hand had been quite close to that crate when it had exploaded and was thrown back by the force of that explsion. Once Sakuya heard the explsion coming from the direction of Marisa she turned towards the door and sighed for relief afte she saw that it had collapsed. But then she saw Marisa laying on the ground near where the explsion had happened.

"Marisa!?" Sakuya yelled Marisa's name, but she didn't even budge.

"Aww, crap," Sakuya thought to herself and ran from her cover while still being shot at by the soldiers. Now the remaining creatures had turned their interest wholly at the troops near the back wall of the hangar and forced them to retreat towards the other entrance to that hangar. Sakuya managed to get to Marisa without being hit and immediately made sure if she was okay. Marisa's eyes were wide open and she was breathing frantically.

"Where am I, why can't I feel my body?" Marisa stuttered frantically as Sakuya grabbed her from her arms and dragged to safety. Marisa was bleeding from here and there because some of the fragments of that explsion had hit her body.

"Come on," Sakuya mumbled as she dragged Marisa into safety behind one of the exploded trucks and once she was sure that Marisa wasn't in the line of fire she got back into shooting at the troops. It seemed that they had started to retreat from the hangar. Sakuya saw as the soldiers were currently rushing through the other open door leading to hangar while the mosters followed them. Few of the monsters managed to get through that door after the troops before they shut the door behind themselves leaving Sakuya and Marisa to that hangar together with the last few remaining creatures. Sakuya stood up from her cover and shot the few remaining monsters with ease. Sakuya then just stood there for a moment and sighed while putting her gun back to her belt. She then rushed back to Marisa who was still behind the truck. Once she got back to Marisa she saw how Marisa was sitting against the truck and holding her head.

"How do you feel?" Sakuya asked and squatted beside Marisa.

"My ears are ringing, I still can't feel my toes and it hurts like hell. Is it over?" Marisa asked and looked at Sakuya.

"Yeah, the troops retreated and you managed to block the door. And do not worry. The shock from that explosion will pass soon enough. You were lucky," Sakuya said and inspected Marisa's wounds carefully.

"Let me remove the larger fragments. I will tie your most severe wounds," Sakuya said and signed Marisa to remove her shirt. She then ripped her own sleeve off and used it to tie Marisa's wounds as well as she could.

"Well, what do we do now?" Marisa asked after she had gotten her shirt back on. She saw how Sakuya was just about to answer, but didn't get very far when they heard footsteps on the other side of the truck.

"Gosh, more?" Sakuya sighed and took out her weapon again.

"Just stay low, I will take care of this," Sakuya said and gestured Marisa to stay put. She then slowly stood up while still staying behind the truck. She took a deep breath and dashed out from her cover and aimed. She was just about to pull the trigger and shoot the person in front of her, but she managed to stop herself in time when she realized who it was.

"Sanae!?" Sakuya exclaimed after she realized that it was Sanae who was standing in front of her.

"Oh thank the god, you are alive," Sakuya sighed and was just about the put her weapon back to her belt, but once she saw one of Wolf's troops about ten meters behind Sakuya she readied her aim again.

"Get down," Sakuya yelled while aiming at the soldier behind Sanae, but Sanae was standing there between the two so Sakuya didn't get a clear shot.

"Stop," Sanae yelled and ran up to Sakuya and grabbed her hand to get her to lower her weapon. It was then when Sakuya realized that the soldier behind Sanae wasn't holding a weapon in his hands.

"What's happening there?" Marisa asked and stood up from her cover to see what was happening. She saw Sanae holding Sakuya's hand trying to get her to stand down and a soldier standing behind the two.

"Sanae, what is this?" Sakuya asked with strict tone while still aiming at the soldier.

"He's not keeping me hostage, he's with me. I managed to escape thanks to him. Please stand down, he's not gonna hurt us," Sanae yelled while still clinging to Sakuya's arm. Marisa was watching the situation with confused look on her face from behind the truck. Sakuya then looked at Sanae after she had explained the situation rapidly. Sakuya then slowly lowered her weapon while keeping eye on to that soldier who now took a few steps closer to them.

"Thanks," Sanae said and sighed for relief. Once Sakuya had put her gun back to her belt Sanae hugged her.

"I knew you were gonna save me, thank you," She said with joyful tone and look on her face. Sakuya just chuckled gently before Sanae let go of her. Marisa had now finally come out from behind the truck.

"Okay please explain this from the start," Sakuya then said and glared at the soldier who was still keeping his distance.

"This man, Vitaly, helped me to escape after those zombie creatures attacked us. He has taken a good care of me after I got captured and defended me from the other soldiers. He kept me safe while I was Wolf's captive. He decided to stay with me once we got away," Sanae explained and looked at Vitaly as he took a few steps closer to Sakuya and Marisa.

"Hello, I assume you're miss Sakuya about whom Sanae has told me about," Vitaly said with strong east european accent and nodded to Sakuya as a gentle greeting. Vitaly was wearing the same uniform as every other Wolf's troop. He had a short blonde hair and was seemingly quite young. He was carrying a fully automatic shotgun on his back which kept Sakuya nervous.

"Well... thanks for keeping her safe. And if you may, it is just Sakuya," Sakuya responded with nervous look on her face.

"Marisa what happened to you!?" sanae then exclaimed once she saw in what condition Marisa was when she stepped forward to say hello to Sanae.

"Playing a hero is rough," marisa said, grinned and showed Sanae thumbs up. Sanae then hugged her too.

"Oh, Marisa I thought you might miss this so I grabbed it back from Wolf," Sanae said and handed Marisa her backpack which she had lost back at Saana. It still had all the items they had collected before she lost it. Marisa then emptied her current backpack and put all of its items to her old backpack and threw the extra one away.

"And Sakuya, I managed to get this too. It has kept me safe in this submarine base," Sanae said and gave Sakuya her luger she had lost back at Saana.

"No worries, you can hold on to that till we get out of here. I have my own gun," Sakuya said and smiled a bit.

"Thanks, but what are those zombie things and how in the world is this place filled with them?" Sanae then asked and put the luger back to the gun holster she had attached to her belt. Sakuya then sat down to the bonnet of that burnt truck and started explaining everything she and Marisa had discovered on their trip to save her. She told her all about the curse and how the Sampo had gotten to this place. She also told about her personal tidings to this place. How she had visited it back during the second world war. Vitaly was also listening to Sakuya, but Sakuya was a bit surpised to see how calmly he listened to her. She thought that he might call bullshit at least at the part where she told how she had visited this place in the forties.

"You do not seem too awfully surprised about the fact that I am an ex SS officer. Why is that?" Sakuya then asked playfully from Vitaly.

"I've already told what we are. How we are not from this world. He knows about our powers," Sanae explained and shrugged her shoulders.

"Huh, I thought that no one in the outside world believed in supernatural things anymore," Sakuya said with impressed tone and look on her face.

"We're in a long since forgotten nazi bunker that is filled with zombies and the source of it all is a mythical cursed idol. I think there's enough supernatural things going on here to get anyone to reconsider their beliefs," Sanae said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"A fair point. And more reason for us to start to get the heck out of here," Sakuya said and hopped off from the truck. Once Sakuya touched the floor and was about to say something she felt a strange fibration coming from her pocket. She reached into the pocket and pulled out Sanae's phone. Someone was calling.

"That's not possible. I haven't been in the outside world for nine years. There shouldn't be anyone who would call me," Sanae said with shocked look on her face while watching her phone ringing on Sakuya's hands.

"Should I answer?" Sakuya asked and looked at Sanae. Sanae just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She didn't know if it was a good idea, but what harm would it do either. Sakuya then pressed the answer butten and pressed the phone to her year.

"Who is there?" Sakuya asked carefully.

"Sakuya!? Thank the gods you're okay. Listen you have to get back to Gensokyo as soon as possible, don't let Marisa find that treasure," Sakuya heard Reimu yelling to her year. Nitori had finally managed to get that signal transmitter working and Reimu was currently standing on the outside world counterpart of the Hakurei shrine together with that transmitter which they had used to call Sakuya.

"Reimu? How did you get connection to us?" Sakuya asked with surprised tone and look on her face.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that the treasure Marisa is after is cursed. Do not let her get her hands on to it," Reimu kept yelling so Sakuya had to move the phone a bit away from her year.

"Yeah, no shit it is cursed. Taking into account that we are standing in a SS bunker dozens of meters below ground that is full of jiangshi like creatures I can safely say that the treasure that is in the same bunker is cursed," Sakuya said with sarcastic tone.

"What are you doing there? Have you found Marisa already?" Reimu exclaimed when she heard how close to the treasure they already were.

"Yeah we have her, but the rescue mission dragged on for a while," Sakuya responded and looked at Sanae who scratched her hair.

"Any how you must get out of there as soon as possible," Reimu continued.

"We were just about to do that when you interrupted us. Do not worry we will see you back in Gensokyo," Sakuya said and ended the call.

"Easier said than done," Sanae then said while watching Sakuya putting her phone back into her pocket again.

"Do not worry. The door that leads to the treasure also leads us back towards the main entrance via detour. We can use that," Sakuya said and started walking towards the door that the troops had shut behind themselves. Once she reached it she pressed her ear against it and listened.

"What are you doing?" Marisa asked while watching Sakuya's weird behavior.

"This place is full of those things. Now when the other door has collapsed they will expectidly search for another entrance to this hangar," Sakuya said and separated her head from the metal door. Sakuya was right, from the other side of that door she heard constant moaning produced by dozens maybe even hundreds of those creatures.

"So we are trapped? Great," Sanae bridled and kicked a small pebble on the floor.

"It might seem like it, but we still have an advantage here," Sakuya said started walking back towards all the wrecked vehicles and crates.

"There is this one thing that caught my attention in the corner of this hangar," Sakuya said and walked towards to what seemed like tube that was covered with a tarpaulin. The tarpaulin was scorched a little, but hadn't burned completely. Sakuya pulled it down and under it was something that looked like a primitive railgun. It looked exactly like a body of a revolver, but it had longer barrel, it was huge, had no handle or trigger and there was a seat behind it.

"What's this?" Sanae asked while looking at the old weapon.

"A project that was called 'The Adder'. I remember how it was developed, but never made it into the battlegrounds. Once I saw this thing in the corner of this hangar I remembered that this base had a testing copy of the weapon," Sakuya said with impressed look on her face.

"It looks impressive, but how does it help us," Vitaly asked while looking at the huge weapon in front of them.

"Simple really. This cannon was meant to be an ultimate weapon to sink war ships. It shoots out a special artillery rounds that are designed to penetrate even the thickest metal walls. But the catch is that when the round penetrates through the first object it triggers the mechanism at the tip of the round opening the shell of the said round. The round is filled with explosives and when it hits the other object on its path it explodes," Sakuya explained.

"How ever. It was meant to work automatically with the use of machines, but this version is manual. It has to be realoaded and shot manually," Sakuya continued and looked at the door behind which she had heard those moans.

"Would you get to the point? How does this help us?" Sanae asked with a bit frustrated look on her face.

"Patience, patience. Behind that door is a hoard of those monsters. We could use this cannon to destroy them all. However the body of a human is too soft to trigger either the shell breaking or the explsion. The round will continue to fly until it hits the back wall and even then the explsion wont kill enough of those monsters. But that does not mean that we could not make a little adjustments to these shells," Sakuya said and climbed on top of the cannon. She then used the mechanism that locked the cylinder to its place to open it. Inside of it were six artillery rounds like in a huge revolver.

"If we trigger the the shell splitting mechanism manually on each of these they will break immediately after they leave the barrel of this cannon. But since the explosion is not helpful for us we have to fill these huge bullets with something else. Like with pieces of metal and stone. Once the shell leaves the barrel the contents of that round turn it into a massive shotgun. We could take more of those creatures out with fewer shots," Sakuya said and pulled the first shell out and gave it to Vitaly.

"Okay let's do that," Marisa said and helped Sakuya to get the second shell out. Sakuya showed them how to open the shells manually and remove the explosives safely. After they had done that to each shell they went to gather rocks and pieces of metal from their surroundings. After their battle with Wolf's men the place was filled with loose rubble and bits of metal from those exploded trucks. It didn't take them too long to gather enough junk material to fill those shells and once they got them filled they put them back to the cylinder of that cannon and locked the cylinder to its place. Sakuya then climbed on top of the weapon and inspected it.

"Okay first we aim this thing towards the door. We want to have as many good shots as we can get," Sakuya said and signed Vitaly to help her to turn the barrel. The cannon was on top of spinning platform, so they managed to turn it even if it was unimaginably heavy.

"Okay then Vitaly, you will help me to fire this beast. The cannon works with a hammer trigger like a normal revolver. You will have to turn the cylinder after each shot and pull the hammer down. I will fire the weapon from the seat behind the hammer," Sakuya said and pointed at the seat in front of a control panel behind the cannon.

"Marisa, Sanae, you will be the ones opening the door once I tell you to. Start shooting the initial creatures that start coming through the door. We do not want the creatures to get seperated from themselves. We want them as a big hoard," Sakuya instructed while looking at Sanae and Marisa. Once Sakuya was done explaining her plan Sanae and Marisa moved to their position and prepared to open the door. Vitaly on the other hand pulled the hammer down and prepared himself. Sakuya did the final calculations to make sure the cannon was aimed properly.

"Now," Sakuya yelled to Sanae and Marisa who pulled down the levers on the both sides of the door to open it. The door screeched as it opened. Sanae and Marisa both aimed their weapons at the corridor where there were dozens upon dozens of those creatures.

"Come get a piece of me," Marisa yelled before shooting the nearest monster to its head. Sanae quickly joined her and they caught the attention of every single monster soon enough. All of them started heading to their direction. Sanae and Marisa shot the most enthusiastic ones that moved faster than the others.

"Back away," Sakuya then yelled at Marisa and Sanae. They quickly glanced at each other and ran away from the door. Sakuya then pulled a switch on the control panel firing the gun. A deafening sound of an explsion filled the hangar as the cannon fired. It worked just as Sakuya had predicted. All the pieces of metal and stone spread in the air ripping everything to shreads on their path. Blood and pieces of those monsters flew all around as they exploded into peces by the force of the cannon. Vitaly then turned the cylinder and pulled the hammer down again.

"Let's do it again," Sakuya yelled and pulled the switch. Sanae and Marisa covere their ears as the cannon fired the second time ripping through more of those creatures that had started to appear from the corridor. After they did it for the third time Sanae and Marisa quickly joined the barrage by shooting some individual ones that had managed to go unharmed. They fired the cannon for the fourth and for the fifth time as the monsters just kept coming and coming. On the sixth time Vitaly was just barely able to turn the cylinder for it had started to get too hot to touch. He pulled the hammer down for the last time and looked at Sakuya.

"Okay, once I have fired this one be ready to make a run for it. There still might be a bunch of those creatures left so we have to force our way through them," Sakuya yelled at them. Everyone nodded to indicate that they were ready and once they did that Sakuya fired the last round out from the cannon. The barrel of the cannon was glowing yellow from the enormous heat that it created from each shot. Once the final round had been fired Sakuya jumped off from the seat and shouted, "Go, go, go!" They all started running towards the corridor while jumping over all the corpses on the floor. Vitaly pulled out his shotgun and shot the first creature that got on their way.

"Run to the far end of this corridor, after that take left and run up the stairs until we get back to this hangar. It will take us to one of those upper walkways. The walkway will take us back towards the entrance," Sakuya yelled while shooting few of those monsters. They did as Sakuya instructed. They ran up the stairs after they had reached the end of the corridor. Few of those creatures were waiting for them on the stairs, but they took them out easily. They could still hear the moaning from all around them, but there were no more of those monsters in the vicinity of them so they figured that they were safe for now.

They were back in the hangar but this time about fifteen meters above the floor level on a walkway that lead towards the far end of the hangar where they saw another corridor leading into the depths of the base.

"That corridor will lead us back above ground," Sakuya yelled as she slowed down a bit now when they weren't chased anymore. However they needed to stop eventually when they realized that the walkway had broken and there was this three and a half meters long gap blocking them from progressing. Sakuya looked at the gap on the walkway for a moment, backed away a little, ran towards the gap and jumped over it with little effort.

"Come, it is doable," Sakuya said and watched how Vitaly followed her and he too jumped over it with ease. Sanae backed away too and ran towards the gap. Once she jumped Vitaly caught her and helped her to the other side. Marisa was just about to follow them when she saw that just before the gap on the lesft side wall there was this corridor on her left leading further into the base.

"Sakuya, where does that lead?" Marisa asked before jumping.

"That is one of the corridors leading to the laboratories. That is also where Wolf and the rest of his men are headed," Sakuya responded with indifferent tone and look on her face. Marisa just stared into the dark corridor for a moment and gulped. Sakuya then started to realize what she was after here.

"No, no, no, no, do not even think about going after that thing. Wolf has probably already reached it and it is dangerous remember," Sakuya said with strict tone and signed to Marisa to jump to the other side with them.

"I'm sorry, I gotta see this through," Marisa said and entered the corridor without even looking at Sakuya who was trying to gesture her to turn back with frustrated look on her face.

"If you go there we wont be coming after you, you hear me," Sakuya yelled after Marisa, but heard no response.

"She saw through your bluff," Sanae said with crossed arms and worried look on her face.

"Gah! I am gonna strangle her once we get her back to Gensokyo," Sakuya groaned in frustration and jumped over the gap on the walkway. She then turned around and saw how Sanae was about to follow her.

"No, you two stay here. It is too dangerous. I will go get her back alone," Sakuya said with strict tone and look on her face before heading after Marisa.

"Well, go after her," Sanae then said to Vitaly after she was sure that Sakuya wouldn't hear their converstaion.

"But she told us to wait for their return," Vitaly said with a bit confused look on his face.

"That's usually the opposite of what we're supposed to do. She might need your help. I'll be fine, now go," Sanae said signed Vitaly to get moving. Vitaly then sighed, shrugged his shoulder, jumped over the gap and followed Marisa and Sakuya into the corridor.

"Just let them come out alive...," Sanae thought to herself while looking at the dark corridor to which Marisa, Sakuya and Vitaly had disappeared.

While running through the dark corridor sakuya thought to herself in frustration, "What the hell is running through her thick skull?" Sakuya couldn't comprehend the idea that after they had had so many reasons to just forget the treasure and head home Marisa changed her mind now of all possible moments. The corridor in which she was running didn't have any crossing corridors connecting to it so it was easy to figure where Marisa had headed, though Sakuya didn't see any signs of her.

"Damn, she is faster than she seems," Sakuya groaned in frustration.

"MARISA," Sakuya yelled, but heard no response. In fact she didn't expect to hear response, but it felt natural to yell her name. Only thing she could hear were distant moans of those same montsers they had already killed dozens of. She could clearly hear them, but they were coming from so far away that she didn't bother to become nervous about them. She just kept running to the direction of the laboratories until she felt and heard something that made her to slow down and listen. It was an explsion coming from the laboratories followed by a short and weak quake. She could feel the floor shaking a little and then stopping as soon as it had started.

"Not good, not good," Sakuya thought to herself as she continued her search for Marisa. Once she had run to the very end of the corridor without finding anything she finally came across the door leading to the laboratories. It was open, but who had gone through it first. Wolf and his men or Marisa? She was uncertain about that, but she couldn't just wait around and find out. She had to head in as soon as possible. She ran through the door and entered a big spacious and quite dark room. Only one light bulb at very end of that said room was lit, but it was more than enough to reveal what the room contained. Almost in the middle of the room was a huge golden, shining, hexagonal mill that was at leats two meters in diameter and one in hight. She slowed down to take a better look at the thing, but she soon saw what else layed within the room. The surroundings of the Sampo were filled with gold coins and salt. Flours had moldered a long time ago, but gold and salt remained. She was just about to step closer to the magnificent artefact in front of her when she realized a corpse on the ground. She squatted down and saw that it was one of Wolf's troops. This one however wasn't shot or pummeled to death, but instead blown up. The body was scorched a little and was missing its lower body. Once she took a closer look she realized that there were more of those corpses all around the room. She then realized what had caused floor ro shake after the explsion. There was ahuge boulder near the wall of the laboratory room. It seemed that it had fallen from the ceiling. She took a step closer to it, but once she did that she saw something yellow sticking out from behind it. It looked like hair.

"Marisa!?" Sakuya excalimed and ran closer to what she saw. Her fears came true. It truly was Marisa, but luckily the boulder hadn't dropped on top of her directly. Only her left foor seemed to be caught under it. Her Hakkero was laying next to her.

"Marisa," Sakuya yelled again to see if she was conscious, but she didn't get to shook her when she heard an awfully familiar voice from behind her.

"Don't worry she's fine. Bitch almost killed us all," Wolf said while walking into the room while holding her stomach. She was bleeding from many places and his clothes seemed to be torn because of what seemed like a explosion fragments.

"She killed one of my troops, took his grenade and almost blew herself up along with the rest of my men," Wolf groaned as he walked towards Sakuya.

"Just help me to get her free and we can all escape here alive," Sakuya responded and tried to move the boulder with her bare hands.

"Na-ah, I don't think so," Wolf responded and pulled a quite big machete from his back.

"You stole my family's belongings, killed my Sophie, ruined my family name's reputation and ruined everything in every turn. Now it's my turn to get my revenge," Wolf groaned and pointed his machete at Sakuya. Sakuya then took a step away from the boulder and her expression switched from a bit surprised to dead serious.

"If I can't have this treasure then neither can you, her or anyone of your petty, miserable group of THIEVES," Wolf shouted as she ran towards Sakuya and swung his machete towards her. Sakuya dodged the attack with ease, pulled out two of her own knives and took a fighting stance.

"En garde, dick head," Sakuya uttered with dead serious look on her face as she stared into Wolf's eyes.

"Now that's the spirit. Don't disappoint me," Wolf said and laughed a bit just before he launched another attack at Sakuya. This time Sakuya redirected Wolf's attack with her own blades so that Wolf ran past her. Shen then round house kicked Wolf to the back of his head. Wolf groaned a little, held his head and turned towards Sakuya again. He attacked once again, this time with a combo of swings. Sakuya dodged each of them and once she got a change she swiped Wolf from her feet making him fall to his back. Sakuya then tried to stab him, but Wolf rolled out from the way of Sakuya's attack.

"Come on," Wolf yelled as he ran towards Sakuya and aimed his blade towards her chest. Sakuya blocked his attack with her knives with ease, but Wolf didn't stop and instead pushed Sakuya against the wall of that room. He then tried to hit her with his fist, but Sakuya dodged the attack once again, punched Wolf to his stomach, kicked him to his forehead and then quickly stabbed him to his side. Wolf backed away a little and held his wound. Sakuya just stared at him with menacing look on her face. Wolf then walked closer to Sakuya and pointed his blade at her. Sakuya just circled around Wolf so she wouldn't be forced against the wall again. Wolf just walked towards her and once he got close enough he once again launched a new wave of attacks at Sakuya. Sakuya just dodged or blocked each attack thrown at her, but Wolf just wouldn't stop. He just continued his reckless attacking until he exhausted himself. He was so desperate that Sakuya almost felt pity for him, almost that was. Once Sakuya saw an opening in Wolf's guard she dashed beside Wolf while dodgning Wolf's attack from under. Stabbed Wolf to the back of his knee and sliced him to his back. Wolf then backed away a little while holding his knee and groaning in pain. Now it was Sakuya's turn. She ran up to Wolf, jumped to the air, kicked him to his face with both of her feet. She then punched Wolf to his stomach and continued by kicking him to his face with her knee. She then round house kicked Wolf away from herself and the threw both of her knives to Wolf's left arm forcing him to drop his machete. Sakuya then pulled out a third knife and pointed it at Wolf.

"We are done here," Sakuya simply groaned and was just about to throw the knife to Wolf's head, but he was faster this time. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Marisa's unconsciouss face and grinned a little.

"You may be good fighter, but I wont lose this one," Wolf said and his amused grin switched to really unamused. Sakuya just stared at Wolf and took a step closer to him. Wolf then pointed his gun at her.

"Na-ah, you stay put. Drop that thing," Wolf said and gestured Sakuya to drop her knife. Sakuya just growled as she was forced to drop her knife to the ground. She then lifted her hands to the air with frustrated look on her face.

"This is my victory. Every last piece of it," Wolf said and looked at Sakuya with really unamused look on his face. It was then when Sakuya saw Vitaly entering the laboratory room from behind Wolf. Wolf then turned around to see who was there.

"Oh, it seems that not everyone of my men died. We might be able to gargo some of these treasures out from here after all," Wolf then said and laughed a bit after turning towards Sakuya again. But soon after she felt a barrel of a gun on the back of his head.

"What are you doing," Wolf then asked with really unamused tone.

"Drop the weapon now," Vitaly commanded with furious tone and look on his face as he pressed the barrel of his shotgun to the back of Wolf's head. Wolf then pointed his gun at Marisa again.

"You think you can press the trigger of your weapon faster than I can?" Wolf asked while staring into Sakuya's eyes. Vitaly didn't respond and instead just watched how Sakuya pulled the last of her knives out and pointed it at Wolf.

"You want a contest in quickness? I will give you one," Sakuya said and grinned menacingly. Wolf then tightened his grip on his pistol.

"Move and I'll shoot," He yelled with furious and a bit frantic tone.

"No, shoot and I'll move," Sakuya then said, looked at Marisa who had regained her consciousness again and smiled. Wolf then pressed the trigger of his pistol, but Sakuya had already thrown her knife that hit the bullet Wolf had shot in the mid air. There was just the sound of that bullet hitting Sakuya's knife. Wolf then looked at Sakuya again, but didn't see her. He then looked around himself and saw Sakuya standing beside Marisa and holding Marisa's Hakkero in her hands. She the dropped it to Marisa who snatched it from the air and pointed it at Wolf.

"Master Spark, dick head," Marisa groaned while pointing her weapon at Wolf. Wolf's eyes wdened when she saw that, but he had time for nothing else when blindingly bright light ignited from Marisa's Hakkero followed by the roaring of Marisa's beam. Marisa's beam erased Wolf completely and most of the ceiling as well. She didn't hold back. She just wanted to be done with him for once and for all. Once Marisa was sure that the beam had destroyed Wolf and that not a single particle of him remained he finally cancelled her beam and fell to her back in exhaustion. Sakuya just looked at the spot where Wolf had stood just a moment ago and the sighed deeply.

"So it's done now?" Marisa then asked silently while breathing heavily.

"Yeah...," Sakuya responded while staring blankly at the spot where Wolf had stood. Sakuya then sighed again and turned towards Marisa.

"Okay, let's get you out of there," Sakuya and tried to get the boulder moving once again.

"Vitaly help me out, would you," Sakuya groaned as she tried to release Marisa's foot from under that boulder. Marisa was also trying to push it. Vitaly then came and gave Sakuya a hand, but the boulder just wouldn't budge.

"Damn, we aint moving that," Vitaly then said after they realized that the boulder was too heavy even for the three of them. Sakuya looked at the boulder for a moment and scratched her hair while doing so. She was trying to figure out a way to release Marisa, but her thinking was interrupted by those familiar moans.

"Shit! Now out of all moments!?" Sakuya graned in frustration and kicked the boulder.

"They must have heard the beam and are heading to this direction," Vitaly said while looking into the direction of the moans.

"Crap, Vitaly cover us while I will get Marisa free," Sakuya commanded and Vitaly nodded. He then took out his weapon and headed for the entrance of the laboratories. Sakuya on the other hand got back to that boulder.

"Move goddammit," She yelled as she tried to get it moving.

"H-hey, Sakuya?" Marisa then uttered and looked at Sakuya.

"We have plenty of time for chit chat after we have gotten you out of here," Sakuya groaned and ignored Marisa.

"No please listen. All I wanted was to find this treasure, for once do something remarkable. I have found it now and that's enough for me. J-just go, at least save yourselves, I'll be fine," Marisa stuttered from under the boulder while staring into Sakuya's eyes. Sakuya could clearly see that she was scared.

"Not a chance, we came this far together and we will come out from this together. Besides I promised to Reimu that we would get out back and I intend to keep that promise," Sakuya said with serious look on her face.

"T-thanks... for coming after me," Marisa then said and smiled a bit. She was clearly relieved to hear that Sakuya wouldn't leave her.

"You know, this time I almost did not come...," Sakuya said with calm but cold tone while looking at Marisa. Marisa just nodded seriously. She understood how Sakuya felt.

"Sakuya!?" Sakuya then heard Vitaly yelling from the entrance. The first creatures had entered the corridor. She figured this out from the gunshots that could be heard from the entrance.

"Okay Sakuya, think, think, think," Sakuya groaned and squatted beside Marisa and looked at her leg.

"Tell me, how much does it hurt, your leg?" Sakuya then asked with serious look on her face while staring into Marisa's eyes.

"Not at all now when you ask," Marisa responded while looking at her leg. Sakuya then touched the base of Marisa's leg that was stuck under the boulder. A wave of immense pain washed over Marisa right after the touch.

"Gah!" Marisa whimpered.

"It is completely crushed, you wont be walking with that anymore," Sakuya said and started searching the ground around the boulder. Marisa looked at her in confusion. Once Sakuya returned she was holding the knife she had dropped earlier. She then kneeled beside Marisa and cut one of Marisa's sleeves off.

"W-what are you...?" Marisa then asked nervously.

"I wont lie, this will hurt a hella lot. Bite this," Sakuya said and ripped a piece of her shirt off and put it into Marisa's mouth.

"Now, I would suggest you not to look," Sakuya said and pressed her knife against thigh of Marisa's foot that was under the boulder. She then sighed deeply and struck the blade through her skin and flesh.

"MMMMHHHHPFFF," Marisa creamed through the piece of fabric in her mouth as Sakuya started cutting off her stuck leg. Sakuya wasn't grossed out by this, she was just worried that Marisa might accidentally hurt herself while writhing in pain. Blood was gushing from the open wound while Marisa started to cry tears of pain. Once Sakuya reched the bone she stopped and turned the tip of her blade towards the bone.

"Okay, brace yourself, this is the worst part," Sakuya said and looked at Marisa with compassionate look on her face. She then punched the handle of her knife cutting Marisa's femur in one strike.

"AAAAAAH," Marisa screamed out loud. She had accidentally spat out the piece of fabric in her mouth. Sakuya was just trying to keep her in her place as she cut through the rest of her foot. Once she got all the way through she threw her knife away and quickly grabbed the sleeve she had cut from Marisa's shirt and tied it immediatly as tightly as she could around the Marisa's leg to prevent her from bleeding out. Marisa was just shivering from the pain. Her shock was so strong that she couldn't utter even a single peep.

"Any time now Sakuya," Vitaly yelled from teh entrance while reloading. He had already killed few dozen of those monsters as they tried to reach the laboratory room.

"Come on now," Sakuya groaned as she picked the shivering Marisa up. She realised that Marisa still had her backpack. She was just about to throw it away when she realized that it might carry a huge value for Marisa since all of the artefacts they had picked up on their journey were stored in it. She figured that she should at least let Marisa to have that. Once she had gotten Marisa to her shoulders she rushed up to Vitaly.

"Let's go," She yelled and Vitaly nodded. Vitaly went first to cover Sakuya who was carrying Marisa. Sakuya could aim and shoot with her other hand, but not properly as she had to constantly make sure that Marisa wouldn't fall. They forced their way through the monsters that had stormed the corrifdor leading back. Vitaly shot every single one of them and once he ran out of ammo Sakuya gave her pistol to him. Vitaly kept shooting every single creature that got on their way and those that survived the shot he tackled to the ground so they wouldn't have chance to hurt either Sakuya of Marisa.

The corridor was quite long, but eventuallt they reached the walkway where Sanae was still waiting for them.

"Sakuya?" Sanae uttered when she saw them running out from that corridor with exhausted looks on their faces.

"Sanae throw me your gun," Sakuya yelled before Sanae could say anything else, Sanae did what she was told and threw the luger to Sakuya. Sakuya then gave Marisa to Vitaly who then jumped over the gap on the walkway. Sakuya shot three of those montsers that followed them to the walkway before turning around and following Vitaly.

"Jeez, what happened back there?" Sanae asked with shocked look on her face when she saw Marisa unconsciouss and her amputated leg.

"Long story short, we must get out of here as soon as possible. Vitaly, are there any boats that we could use?" Sakuya asked from Vitaly as they started running towards the end of the walkway and the exit of that submarine base.

"Yes, the boats we used to get here should still be there. The closest island that has a town is the Isla de San Cristóbal. The town Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is just on the coast of it," Vitaly responded as they ran to the direction Sakuya told them to. They ran all the way to the surface. They didn't dare to slow down so Marisa wouldn't bleed out. It also seemed that every single of those creatures had headed to the laboratories since they didn't encounter any on their way up. Once they reached the top Sakuya immediately ran out from the iron door of that concrete building that was still open after she and Marisa had entered. She looked around herself. The sun had just risen.

"To which direction?" Sakuya asked after Vitaly and Sanae caught up to her.

"About half kilometer to the north. Our boats were parked to the shore there," Vitaly said and pointed to the right direction. They then started running through the jungle. Sanae was still confused from all of this, but she didn't have time to ask what had happened. Only thing she could guess was that they had just barely gotten Marisa out from what ever she had been caught in. They ran through the jungle without worrying about encountering any of those creatures anymore. It was highly unlikely that any of them remained above ground since all the commotion in the base had attracted them there. It didn't take them long to reach the shore and the boats. They headed for the closest one and after laying Marisa down Vitaly rushed to start the engines. Sakuya then commanded Sanae to get some medical supplies. Sanae retrieved a package with a red cross on it and returned to Sakuya as quickly as possible. Sakuya removed the bloody piece of cloth and replaced it with proper bandages. Once Sanae saw a glimpse of Marisa's stub of a foot she turned around immediately so she wouldn't throw up. They then heard the engine of that boat starting and they saw how it left the shore.

"Sanae care to take a look if there is also a cold pack?" Sakuya then asked after she put Marisa into a better position. Sanae searched through the medical supplies and found one. She gave it to Sakuya who immediately placed it on top of Marisa's amputated leg.

"There, that should decrease the amount of blood flowing into her leg," Sakuya said and sighed for relief.

"Sakuya, what in the world happened there?" Sanae finally got to ask as she sat down beside Marisa and Sakuya.

"She blew up the rest of Wolf's men and while doing so a boulder dropped from the ceiling on top of her foot. We took care of Wolf and after that I had to amputate her leg to get her out of there," Sakuya said while looking at unconsciouss Marisa beside her.

"Damn, well at least we were lucky to get out from there alive. But it still is a damn shame that we had to leave empty handed," Sanae said and cracked a sad smile.

"Well I managed to save Marisa's backpack. It holds some artefacts we have picked up on our journey. Maybe they might carry some value, I do not know," Sakuya said and shrugged her shoulders. Sanae then looked ta the backpack next to Marisa. She lifted it from the floor and inspected it. It was heavire than it looked like. She then opened it and took a peek inside and when she did that she wasn't going to believe her eyes.

"Sakuya, look at this," Sanae said and shoved the contents of that backpack to Sakuya. It was filled with those gold coins she had seen in the laboratory room.

Not so empty handed after all... Marisa you beautiful, sly, crafty bastard," Sakuya said muttered as she cracked a gentle smile to her face while watching one of those coins that had that Hannunvaakuna symbol on it. It had not been all for nothing after all.

"So how long till Marisa gets out from hospital?" Sanae asked from Sakuya how was sitting beside her on a terrace of cafe. They were currently waiting for Marisa to get better in the Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Vitaly had gone to get some ice cream for them from a local bar and that gave Sanae and Sakuya a moment to talk privately. Once they had reached the town they had called an ambulance that took Marisa to a hospital. It had already been one day after Marisa was taken in. The coctors said that it was a miracle that the wound wasn't infected. They also said that she will survive and isn't in life threathening condition.

"Not too long I would wager. In the end she regained her consciousness in just couple hours after arriving to hospital," Sakuya repsonded and took a sip from her coffee. Sanae smirked a little and stirred her own coffee a little. Few cars were passing by. It was early evening. The air was warm and it was quite peaceful in that little town. They had sold one of those coins as soon as they got a chance and it alone paid them enough to get back to Japan and Gensokyo. Now they were just waiting for Marisa to get out from the hospital, so they could fly home.

"You know Sakuya, there's something that's been bugging my mind lately," Sanae then asked while looking at her coffee.

"Hmm? What is it?" Sakuya asked and looked at Sanae.

"About Vitaly. I'm sure you've already noticed that I'm in love with him. Do you think it would be okay if he came to Gensokyo with us?" Sanae asked with shy look on her face.

"Hmmm, well I myself do not see any harm in that. People from the outside world do appear in Gensokyo from time to time after all. If you just get Reimu to accept his stay then I think it would be fine," Sakuya responded after thinking about it for a moment.

"I do hope that Reimu understands me on this," Sanae said with gentle smile on her face. Sakuya just nodded and took a sip from her coffee.

The evening soon switched to night and night to morning. Once they woke up from their hotel room they got a word from the hospital that Marisa was now ready to go home. She arrived to the hotel room where she was greeted warmly. She was able to walk with crutch. She said that she could still feel her leg from time to time like when falling asleep. She was clearly sad about the loss of her limb but also happy at the same time for she was still alive. They left on that same day. They got on board the first plane that took them back to Japan. They still didn't have passports, but they had enough money now for bribery so they could get back to Japan without too big of a hustle and once they arrived to the Tokyo's airfield they just slipped away quetly.

It was night. They were just leaving the airfield of Tokyo and were ready to head back to that deserted shrine in the middle of the woods where they had first arrived when coming to outside world. That was until sakuya noticed something. There was this private plane parked to the airfield. She looked at it for a moment.

"Mind if I do something before we leave?" Sakuya then asked and took out one of those gold coins they had. Sanae and marisa nodded with a bit confused looks on their faces. Sakuya then thanked them and disappeared. She had stopped the time and went into the cockpit of that plane. It was what she had thought. The very same plane they had used to excape India. She then took out a small note and wrote something on it.

"A little payment as a thanks when you let us borrow your plane. Sincerely, the hijackers," Sakuya wrote on the note, left it on to the pilot's seat and the coin on top of the note. She grinned a little and returned to Sanae and Marisa.

"What did you do?" Sanae asked after Sakuya returned to them.

"Uhmm, just a little bill I had to pay," Sakuya said, shrugged her shoulders and chuckled playfully. Sanae just shook her head as they headed towards the city. They intended to take a taxi and use that to get as close to the shrine as they could so Marisa wouldn't need to walk so long. They reached the city and were just about to call a taxi when Sakuya remembered something.

"Oh yeah, I promised to get something for my mistress. Just hang on a second," Sakuya said and signed them to stay put. Sanae and Marisa looked at each other with confused looks on their faces.

"She's just too loyal from time to time," Sanae said and huckled playfully while holding hands with Vitaly. Sakuya entered the first shop she saw. It was filled with weird magazines, figures and what she guessed were video games.

"I am sure Remilia wont care too much about what I bring to her. I will just grab something really qui-," Sakuya thought to herself when she happened to see something that caught her eye. A small figure that resembled Remilia perfectly. She looked at it for a moment with confused and curious look on her face.

"How in the world is there a perfect figure of my mistress here in the outside world?" Sakuya thought to herself. She then picked it up and went to the desk to pay for it. She then put it into her pocket and returned back to Sanae, Marisa and Vitaly.

"Now when that is taken care of, shall we head home finally?" Sakuya asked as she waved for a taxi that was passing by. Once it stopped they hopped in and told the driver where to take them.

"It truly was a hell of a adventure wasn't it?" Sanae then asked while looking the buildings passing by through the window.

"Yeah, maybe I should write a book about this. I'm sure people back in Gensokyo would be interested in hearing about it," Marisa said and grinned a little.

"I'm sure that you would just write it full of some meaningless action scenes and it would contain almost no story at all," Sanae said with mischevious grin on her face.

"Oi, I have written stuff before, I know how to please the audience," Marisa said and pointed her finger at Sanae with a little offended look on her face.

"But before that I have a few chores that i have to take care off," Marisa said and cracked a playful smile to her face.

"What ever those might be," Sakuya sighed with gentle smile on her face and shook her head. The taxi took them near the Miyagase lake from where they continued on foot. They headed to uphill the whole time, so it was quite hard for Marisa, but as soon as the others noticed this Vitaly picked her up and carried her for the rest of their walk. And finally they saw that familiar deserted shrine on top of that hill surrounded by wild vegetation that had almost completely taken over the shrine. Marisa hopped down hobbled closer to it.

"You can't even imagine how good it is to see this pile of rotted wood again," Marisa said and chuckled a bit.

"I think we can," Sanae said as she sat down to the terrace of that shrine. Sakuya then joined her while taking the amulet Reimu had given her from her pocket. She had managed to keep it safe for their whole journey and now it was time for her to finally use it. She couldn't even describe how relived she was now when it was finally over. She walked up to the terrace of that shrine and attached that amulet to one of the corner pillars of that shrine. Soon after three glowing spehers rose from the ground and started spinning creating a white sphere to the air. Soon after the interiors of that speher lit too and the portal opened in a bright flash. They all then just looked at each other and nodded. It was finally time for them to return home. They all stepped into the portal at the same time and a flash of blinding light surrounded them. Once the light had faded enough and their eyes finally gotten used to the darkness of the night again they could open their eyes again. Marisa immediately threw her crutch away, layed down to the terrace of the Hakurei shrine and kissed it. She hugged the donation box for a moment and when she finally let go of it she looked at the others with a bit embarrased look on her face.

"Just happy to see this empty box again," Marisa said and grinned.

"It wouldn't be empty if I had visitors coming and going here in my shrine," They heard Reimu saying as she opened the door of the shrine and stepped out. She had woken up because of that bright light on the outside. Marisa had never seen such a happy expression on Reimu's face as she ran up to her and hugged her. Marisa was a bit surprised by this. She had thought that Reimu would yell at her immediately when they would get back.

"Don't you ever do something stupid like that again," Reimu said with tears of joy coming from her closed eyes as she held Marisa up and hugged her. Marisa hugged her back with her other arm and with the other one dag out a one gold coin from her pocket and slipped it into Reimu's donation box without her noticing. Sanae just cracked a gentle smile to her face as she saw this and saw Marisa putting her finger to her lips to gesture them to stay quiet about it.

"I'm glad to see you too," Marisa uttered and squeezed her freind thightly.

Two days had passed since Marisa, Sanae and sakuya had returned to Gensokyo with Vitaly. Reimu had given Vitaly a permission to stay in Gensokyo. He moved to on top of the Youkai Mountain togteher with Sanae. Kanako and Suwako were more than happy to accept new addition to their small family. However the happiest one was Sanae. She finally had someone to take care of and who would take care of her. It had also been a long time since the last time when she had someone who understood her as a person who originated from the outside world. Sakuya on the other hand returned to Scarlet Devil Mansion with Marisa. She presented the figure she had bought from the outside world to her mistress. She thought it was adorable how her mistress reacted like child when she saw a miniature version of herself. She just kept staring at it for hours straight. Marisa on the other hand was taken to Patchouli for medical treatment. At first she wasn't willing to cure Marisa's leg, but when Sakuya insisted she finally agreed to make some powder when rubbed on to Marisa's foot would make it grow back in a month or two. Marisa paid back to Patchouli with one of those gold coins they had brought back together with them. Patchouli accepted her payment even though she didn't care for gold. Only thing she was interested in was the fact that the coin was made by Sampo. Even if she didn't show it, Patchouli was glad to have that kind of an artefact in her library. Once Marisa had been treated with that powder she returned home, threw away her crutch she had gotten from the outside world and attached a handle to her broom so when she wasn't using it for flying she could use it to keep herself up. She had actually just flown to Kourindow and told all about their adventure to Rinnosuke who was more than reliveed when he heard that Marisa had gotten home safely.

"And that I believe wraps up my story," Marisa said and grinned proudly while sitting next to Rinnosuke on his desk.

"And all that from just one stone tablet... Incredible," Rinnosuke responded while scratching his hair with amazed look on his face.

"Yeah. By the way, what would you say if I were to give you a copy of my book about this adventure once I'm done writing it? You could sell it here for customers," Marisa asked with wide grin on her face.

"Heh, I'll think about that. You truly are always after the profits," Rinnosuke said and chuckled a bit while shaking his head with smile on his face.

"Speaking of which, I believe I owe you a payment for that stone tablet. I'd really like to keep it if you don't mind," Marisa said and shrugged her shoulders.

"No not at all, but I really don't think it would be a proper act on my part to charge anything from you for it," Rinnosuke said and cracked a gentle smile to his face.

"Well if that's the case then accept this as... well just take the damn thing," Marisa said and dropped one of those gold coins into Rinnosuke's hand.

"Marisa this is way too much for one stone tablet," Rinnosuke said with amazed look on her face while looking at the coin.

"Well in that case it'll cover most of my future purchases, wont it," Marisa said, grinned mischeviously and they both bursted out laughing.

 **Author's last word**

I mean holy shit, this took longer than had anticipated. Surely longer than I had hoped for, but either way it is done now and damn I am glad. It is commonly said that the second story is always the hardest one to write and I can truly agree on that. There were many times when I was completely out of ideas and times when I simply didn't have time to write anything. Like for instance I couldn't write even a single word during January and February. But any how, this has been the Scourge Shrouded in Gold. I hope that you found this even somewhat enjoyable, because I put a huge amounts of effort into this. And if you ever have played any of the Uncharted games I'm sure that you notced that this story was literally full of references to that game series, as if this story was inspired by it. *cough But well I guess it's time for us all to move on. I'll start working on new stories quite soon, so be on a lookout for those. And if I remember correctly someone left a review on to the final episode of the DoDR about hoping the story to continue. Well let's just say I have plans. What plans, I can hear someone asking? You'll see... in time. :)


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